England set for Cup bid

ENGLAND and Russia may be going head-to-head on Wednesday on the football pitch but the two countries are also set to be the main European protagonists in bidding for the 2018 World Cup.

Sepp Blatter’s confirmation he wants an end to rotation of the finals between different continents follows months of hints from the FIFA president that he is in favour of opening up bidding for the tournament.

Richard Caborn, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s World Cup Ambassador for 2018, welcomed Blatter’s comments, which appear to end any chance of the finals being automatically handed to a country from the CONCACAF federation from north and central America and the Caribbean.