Woody
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 Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:29 pm Post subject: amazed |
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England has a "very good chance" of bidding for the 2018 World Cup, according to Sports Minister Richard Caborn.
A feasibility study into the possibility of hosting the world's most prestigious international tournament is currently being carried out, and any final bid submission would not be lodged until 2009.
England failed to land the 2006 event which was won by Germany and Mr Caborn believes that the lessons of their failure have been learned.
London will be staging
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the 2012 Olympic Games and the Sports Minister said: "I think the way we're approaching this, I think that we obviously think there would be a very good chance of bidding for the World Cup.
"Obviously as a Sports Minister I'd be disappointed if we didn't because I'd be at the forefront of pushing it, as I was with the Olympics. Like we did with the Olympics, we want to be absolutely sure what we are doing is based on robust figures, and our approach is right.
"I think we made many mistakes in (bidding for) 2006 - the way we handled the (Millennium) Dome, the way we handled Wembley and the way we handled Pickett's Lock. There were some tough lessons, and if you don't learn from tough lessons then you're a bit of an idiot."
Mr Caborn added: "We've gone around the world and looked at cities who have been successful in bidding for the Olympics and World Cups as well."
Having sampled the atmosphere in Germany during this summer's World Cup finals, Mr Caborn is certain that England has the know-how and facilities to table a more convincing bid.
He believes that England's strength lies in its stadia, and if a bid is made to bring the competition to England for the first time since 1966, he thinks that the 2012 Olympics will provide a solid test of the country's infrastructure.
The Sports Minister said: "In the Olympics themselves, football will be one of the sports to actually go around the country.
"It will be at Hampden Park (in Glasgow) and in Cardiff and at Aston Villa's stadium and will finish at the great Wembley.
"Wembley will be the greatest stadium in the world, and will be a real credit to the nation.
"You look at places like the Emirates Stadium and football grounds up and down the country and we have some of the best stadia in the world - I have no doubts at all.
"The 2012 Games will be a great showcase. I have no doubts at all that if we really want to make a bid for 2018 then we have the stadia and indeed the organisation that can more than manage."
I still amazes me that with the stadiums we have in this country and have had for sometime why the WC has never come home after 40 years.
The thing that scares me most abart this story is that i will be 50 if it does come home.  
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