The Sonny Side of Sports is backing the USA in its bid to win the hosting rights to either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. The USA’s successful hosting of the 1994 World Cup has to work in its favor ahead of the big vote on 2 December by the executive committee of FIFA, world football’s governing body.
More than 3.5 million fans, a record, attended the World Cup here in the USA 16 years ago. U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, the head of the U.S. World Cup bid committee, has told FIFA that another World Cup in the United States would likely set new records for ticket sales, international visitors and media rights revenues.
Gulati adds that the USA has multiple stadiums that meet FIFA’s requirements for a World Cup final or an opening match, and very few of the candidates can promise that.
Football experts, though, say a European candidate is likely to win the 2018 World Cup. England, Russia, and joint bids from Spain and Portugal, and Belgium and the Netherlands, are competing against the USA. The Americans are expected to have a better chance of winning the 2022 World Cup, when they go up against Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.
To boost their chances, the U.S. World Cup bid committee released the following video this week. It includes appearances by U.S. women’s soccer star Mia Hamm and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.