Eleven countries will bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup finals.
Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, South Korea, the United States and joint bids from Belgium-Holland and Spain-Portugal will compete for the right to host the tournament.
Nine of the candidates are in the hunt for both World Cups, while Qatar and South Korea have applied to host only the 2022 event. Fifa’s 24-man executive committee will choose the two winning bids in December next year.
“We are very pleased about the fantastic level of interest in our flagship competition, with all initial bidders confirming their candidature,” said the Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
“The diversity and quality of the contenders will make this a very interesting selection process. This shows the importance of the World Cup as a truly universal event.”
With the 2010 finals in South Africa and the 2014 event in Brazil, the European countries are the favourites to host the 2018 tournament and with Blatter previously indicating that joint bids are unlikely to succeed, the favourites to host are England, who last held the finals in 1966 and Russia, who have not previously hosted a World Cup or European Championship.
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