Russia will host the 2018 World Cup competition, as announce by FIFA President Sepp Blatter today. The Russian bid prevailed over bids from three other European challengers, England, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium.
It was a big blow to the England bid which was one of the pre-announcement favourites. The England delegation to the FIFA headquarters in Zurich was also accompanied by its major leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham while the Russian delegation didn’t even include Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The job of the host of the 2022 World Cup was also announced at the same time, with the privilege going to Qatar. Both Russia and Qatar will be hosting the prestigious event for the first time.
The voting process took place against a highly charged background after British media outlets made allegations of corruption against a number of FIFA’s executive committee members.
The executive committee, reduced to 22 after two were suspended over the allegations, voted in secret. No details of the counts were made available by FIFA but bid member Gary Lineker told Reuters England had gone out in the first round of voting for 2018, getting only two votes.
