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FIFA set to take decision in world sport

FIFA will take the most far-reaching decision in international sport on Thursday when its executive committee votes on the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

England, who are bidding to host the event in 2018, suffered a late blow when a match between Birmingham City and Aston Villa was marred by hooliganism on the eve of the vote.

Fans ripped up seats and threw flares into the crowd after a post-match pitch invasion in scenes which resembled the dark days of the 1980s, when English football was plagued by crowd trouble.

England’s success in largely stamping out hooliganism since then had been seen as one of the strengths of the bid.

Thursday is the culmination of a bidding process that has involved 11 nations with England, Russia and joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium seeking to host the finals in Europe in 2018.

The United States, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Australia are involved in a separate race for 2022 and by awarding two World Cups to be staged so far in the future, FIFA is closing the door on any more World Cup bidding wars for around 10 years when the next contest begins for the 2026 World Cup.

When FIFA president Sepp Blatter opens the envelopes to reveal the winning names for the two tournaments at the Zurich Messezentrum some time after 1600 local time (1500 GMT), he will spark a financial, economic and social frenzy that will last in the winning countries for more than a decade.

The value of hosting the World Cups is virtually incalculable and could boost the economies of the winning bidders, and certainly the finances of FIFA itself, by hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds, roubles, euros or any other currency involved.

The Netherlands/Belgium campaign team were the first in action on Thursday when they began their final presentation to the executive committee at 0800 GMT.

They were due to be followed by Spain/Portugal at 0900 GMT and then England at 1000 and Russia at 1100.

The competition for both tournaments looked too close to call with no-one able to predict which way the 22-man executive committee would vote in its secret ballot.