Brown-nosing Jack Warner England's 2018 World Cup bid team is planning to give luxury handbags to the wives of all 24 members of Fifa's voting committee. And Fifa vice-president Jack Warner - the most vociferous supporter of bidding countries showing exactly how much they want the tournament via the medium of gifts for committee members - [. Click to continue reading...

Don't worry, I'm not advertising any insurance here. Not sure about the odds but you'd be very unlucky to get hurt by a paper aeroplane that's for sure. Seriously though, have you ever been hurt by one? If so, is it as bad as David James makes it out to be? This is what he said,

They were big flares, granted, but you could argue that someone throwing a paper aeroplane on the pitch might take someone's eye out.

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According to the Sunday Telegraph, Jack Warner's harsh comments directed at England's 2018 World Cup bid have not landed on deaf ears. During the ambush, the FIFA Vice-President highlighted the FA's ineffective use of the Royal Family which looks to have spurred Prince William, President of the England Football Association, into action.

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This week FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said some pretty mean things about England's "lightweight" proposal to host the 2018 World Cup,  sending the bid's organizers into a defensive tizzy. Forget for a moment how some bureaucratic hack from a small Caribbean country could push the bid to the brink of defeat.

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We all have to agree that that would be a great location to host a World Cup. Holland and Belgium combined can definitely do a great job and make fans and teams happy. What's your opinion?

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The FFA: How's your World Cup bid process going in Canberra?
No A-League Licence, no World Cup bid from Canberra. That's what the ACT Government are saying...and that's what I say.
Yeah, take that FFA.
Who would want a few World Cup games in Canberra in ten years time, a hefty taxpayer bill for us poor sods, more Mariners stale crumbs in the coming years, and no legacy for football in the region. Click to continue reading...

With the decision for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup being made in 2011 I guess the bombs in Jakarta this week mean Australia has one less Asia competitor to host the 2022 World Cup. Click to continue reading...

www.australia2018-2022.com.au
442 magazine have 70,000 readers per month. They reckon if each of those readers get 15 Aussies to sign-up at the above address to show support for the World Cup bid then we'll have a million fans.
So come on, every reader of this blog, get your 15 friends, family and colleagues to sign-up. Click to continue reading...

Astrojax asked me for the real NPC lunch..so here it is.
I enjoyed a wonderful steak, with my friends from Capital Football at the National Press Club today. Frank Lowy, Sir Frank to you, and FFA CEO Ben Buckley were entertaining us...and they did.
I moved seamlessly across to Canberra A-League bid leader Ivan Slavich, asking him quickly and quietly how the bid meeting this morn had gone with the FFA. Click to continue reading...

Great to hear that the first person to ring Frank Lowy to congratulate him on Socceroos qualifying for the 2010 World Cup was fmr football boss and head of Australian Rugby Union...John O'Neill. We need more of this.
And even Andrew Dimitriou, (see quote below) AFL Supremo has come out and has said AFL supports the Aussie World Cup bid. Click to continue reading...

Shepparton, Victoria poulation 60,000 has already put its hand up so imagine the legacy of training centres that could be built for the regions with a World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Come Play!
Here's the Aussie World Cup bid video. Click to continue reading...

And my local club leads the way...wel what did you expect?
Here's the site: World Cup Australia site. http://www.australia2018-2022.com.au/
And my local club, Majura Junior Football club played a big part. Well everyone always finds an angle don't they.
Irene Mantinaos gave an address at the launch. Click to continue reading...

FFA will launch our World Cup bid in Canberra today. You can see all the action on Fox and SBS live from 3pm
A great occasion no doubt, with the PM, star players and a staged launch. (Watch out for a Majura parent giving the "ethnic" speech well that's how it was described to me!)
Me? Click to continue reading...

Calm down, it's not for the A-League announcement but Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley will be here on the weekend, even overnighting in the finest city to want an A-League team.
The official launch of the Australian bid for the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup will take place at Parliament House on Sunday and the very next day Sir Frank and Australian sports finest CEO Ben Buckley will be at the National Press Club to talk about the bid, the World Cup bid. Click to continue reading...

Two of the biggest USA soccer stars have been asked to help a United States bid for the 2018 or 2020 World Cup. Mia Hamm and Landon Donovan have been asked and have agreed to help the National Bid Committee in their ensuing efforts.

image by newscom

Being able to host the FIFA World Cup games is one of the best economic boosts a country could have.

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On May 8, 2009 United States President Barack Obama sat down with the Univision Media. Towards the end of the interview he asked Obama if he supported a US host of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Games. Obama said that wrote a letter to FIFA in hopes that they would consider their bid to host the world's largest sporting event in the United States.

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Is U.S. President Barack Obama trying to get the World Cup to America?
According to the New York Times, he just might be.
Not the 2010 World Cup, of course. But how about the 2018 or 2022 Cup?
In a letter hand-delivered to FIFA President Sepp Blatter, (Blatter's so important that Obama has to have his letter hand-delivered) the US President said, "As a child, I played soccer on a dirt road in Jakarta (his youth in Indonesia), and the game brought the children of my neighborhood together. Click to continue reading...

Who will hold the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups?  That will be decided in the next year or so as FIFA confirmed that 13 nations officially bid for the chance to host The Great Tournament.  According to FIFA.com, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the USA [. Click to continue reading...

The deadline for nations to bid on the 2018 & 2022 World Cup has passed and according to FIFA, 11 bids were submitted. In alphabetical order, they are Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the United States. Click to continue reading...

The deadline for nations to bid on the 2018 & 2022 World Cup has passed and according to FIFA, 11 bids were submitted. In alphabetical order, they are Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the United States. Click to continue reading...

The deadline for nations to bid on the 2018 & 2022 World Cup has passed and according to FIFA, 11 bids were submitted. In alphabetical order, they are Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the United States. Click to continue reading...

Let's begin Part II of our analysis of bidders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup with a surprise entrant whose deep pockets could sneak in and win the right to host a World Cup. QATAR The oil-rich nation with plentiful natural gas reserves would become the 1st Arab nation to host a World Cup.  According to the CIA [. Click to continue reading...

Let's begin Part II of our analysis of bidders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup with a surprise entrant whose deep pockets could sneak in and win the right to host a World Cup. QATAR The oil-rich nation with plentiful natural gas reserves would become the 1st Arab nation to host a World Cup. According [. Click to continue reading...

Let's begin Part II of our analysis of bidders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup with a surprise entrant whose deep pockets could sneak in and win the right to host a World Cup. QATAR The oil-rich nation with plentiful natural gas reserves would become the 1st Arab nation to host a World Cup. According [. Click to continue reading...

Over the past few weeks, numerous nations have bid for the rights to host the 2018 & 2002 FIFA World Cup. Since the 2018 World Cup is closer most of the news about host nation bids concerns the 2018 tournament. With 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil,  nations from UEFA, CONCACAF, Asia can [... Click to continue reading...

Over the past few weeks, numerous nations have bid for the rights to host the 2018 & 2002 FIFA World Cup. Since the 2018 World Cup is closer most of the news about host nation bids concerns the 2018 tournament. With 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil,  nations from UEFA, CONCACAF, Asia can [... Click to continue reading...

Over the past few weeks, numerous nations have bid for the rights to host the 2018 & 2002 FIFA World Cup. Since the 2018 World Cup is closer most of the news about host nation bids concerns the 2018 tournament. With 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil,  nations from UEFA, CONCACAF, Asia can [... Click to continue reading...

Looks like Barack Obama's election to the United States Presidency will do wonders for US soccer as well.
According to an article in the Guardian Unlimited, Obama's election could derail England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, according to a "high-placed" FIFA official. The unnamed source told Yahoo Sports that Obama's popularity will be "a huge factor" in deciding whether the USA is selected to host either the 2018 or 2022 tournaments. Click to continue reading...

I spent years telling everyone I knew that Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were good enough to get this country to a World Cup.
With other players in Serie A, EPL, SPL and Eredivision it wasn't hard to see the potential.
After all even good old Ireland had made it with many lesser known stars and no-one with the individual talent of Kewell or Viduka. Click to continue reading...

Concacaf President and Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner hopes to convince the USA to abandon their bid for the 2018 finals in order to clear the way for England.
"My message to the USA - and they don't have to listen - is to try to make a deal for 2022 and I'm quite sure that would have universal support. Click to continue reading...

Qatar and China drew 0-0 overnight meaning the Aussies took another huge leap towards the World Cup....next stage at least.
Table below
Aussies 3 7 points
Qatar 3 4 points
China 3 2 points
Iraq 2 1 point
With China and Iraq way off the pace, a draw against Iraq on Sunday morning Aussie tme and a Qatar victory over China and we're almost certain, definitely, maybe, probably to go through. Click to continue reading...

The United States announced this week that it's interested in hosting the 2018 World Cup. No surprise there. They've been talking about bidding for the 2018 World Cup for quite some time although an official campaign launch isn't expected until later this summer. However, the British media treated the news as a revelation and a [. Click to continue reading...

Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman, Frank Lowy AC, today met with the young men who will carry the hopes of Australian football for the next decade.
Well some of them! These things change. Danai Gapare from Canberra was there. Well done Danai. But I'm sure Chris Bush and one or two others will be pushing hard. Click to continue reading...

Australia hopes their bid for the 2009 & 2010 Club World Cup will help them land the 2018 World Cup.
Their football association's chief executive Ben Buckley said:

"We want to be a strong and positive contributor to the world of football in as many ways as possible," he added.

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