FIFA President Sepp Blatter has told England’s 2018 bid team that it would be ”easy” for them to host the World Cup, but warned that Russia is mounting a strong campaign to host the finals.
England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup is undergoing a four-day FIFA inspection that started off with a Downing Street reception where deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the bid ”unbeatable”. But Blatter – who is not on the six-man inspection team – warned England that there are others with strong claims to host the tournament.
Speaking in Singapore, Blatter told insideworldfootball.biz: ”The easiest way to organise the World Cup is to go to England. Everything is there – fans, stadiums, infrastructure – it’s easy.”
”You cannot deny Russia if they bid for something. They are more than a country. They are a big continent, a big power.”
Arsenal’s Russian striker Andrei Arshavin claims his country would benefit more than England from hosting the 2018 World Cup and thinks that the fact England already has the infrastructure in place is a negative point.
”You should not have it,” he told talkSPORT. ”You have everything. If you say, ‘Let’s start the World Cup tomorrow’, you have everything already. For us it’s going to be much more. In general, in worldwide football it would be better.
”It will let us get infrastructure because at the moment it is not good enough for football. Our people love football and it will probably be the biggest event this century for our people.”
