World Cup 48 team expansion allocation

[Bully Wee Villa]

The Low Countries have no chance unless they find oil in a trench or under a windmill.

They could provide additional stadia for a tournament hosted in France.

[HibeeJibee]

Belgium & Netherlands had to co-host Euro 2000 with 16 teams, can't see how they could manage 3 times that... All things being equal (and this is FIFA we're talking about!) the next European host will surely be England, and it could be in 2030 if the South Americans aren't in a position to put a reasonable bid up - no doubt they could even brand it up as returning to the birthplace of football in the centenary year and all that.

China and Australia look the only obvious bidders from Asia - and there's no doubt who would win that particular face-off. Could they get around that "sit out 2 rounds" rule by getting Australia to bid with NZ?

For security and logistical reasons I can't see how it'll return to Africa. Morocco can't host it alone.

[sparky88]

I'd be amazed if an England world cup bid for a 48 team tournament doesn't include stadia from other uk countries, especially the Milennium Stadium.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Could do it on their own, if needed.

 

Say you have a maximum of two grounds per city...

 

Wembley

One other London

MK

Southampton

Plymouth

Brighton

Bristol C

Norwich

Villa

Forest

Derby

Leicester

Wolves

Leeds

Wednesday

Hull

Man City

Man Utd

Liverpool

Everton

Newcastle

Sunderland

 

Not all of the above would host, but you could get sixteen or so up to the required standard.

 

Would rather it was a dozen English grounds plus Hampden, Murrayfield, Millennium, Liberty, Lansdowne Road and one other Irish ground.

 

 

[forameus]

A UK World Cup would be a nice compromise.  England definitely could hold it on their own, but given by that time they'll probably be no less then 100 nations in the World Cup, would they want everyone descending on what is still a relatively small country?  Extending it out to include the Millennium Stadium, either Hampden or Parkhead, maybe Murrayfield, and somewhere in Ireland would spread things out a bit more.  

Good dress rehearsal in 2020.  When the SFA inevitably f**k up hosting just a group stage and do something like being pictured in full Nazi regalia in a corporate box at one of the games, then maybe that'll change.

[Herman Hessian]

42 minutes ago, forameus said:

Good dress rehearsal in 2020.  When the SFA inevitably f**k up hosting just a group stage and do something like being pictured in full Nazi regalia in a corporate box at one of the games, then maybe that'll change.

[Enigma]

Murrayfield would be more attractive in a WC bid than Hampden.

[HibeeJibee]

It is often floated as an idea by fans and media in the Celtic nations... but with so many cities and suitable stadiums of their own, why would the FA (and its constituent member clubs) want to share out a decent proportion of venues for an English World Cup to the others and turn it into a British, United Kingdom, or British-Irish World Cup? Let alone rugby grounds.

They put forward a shortlist of 15 stadiums for WC 2018 - to be reduced to 10-12 had they been successful - and that was omitting places like Derby, Hull, Leicester, Middlesborough, Southampton, Coventry, Wolves, Stoke and Norwich - and London venues like Chelsea, Spurs and Twickenham if you're going down the rugby way. They're extremely well supplied.

If it happened I'm sure it'd be somewhat tokenistic... a few games at Millennium Stadium, a few games at Hampden - probably nothing more... and we would not automatically qualify.