2018 bids may be restricted to Europe

A deal is being discussed whereby only European nations would bid to host the 2018 World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said yesterday.

Russia and England have applied separately to stage the 2018 and/or the 2022 World Cup while Spain and Portugal and Netherlands and Belgium have made joint bids for one or both.

Australia, Japan and United States have also bid for the 2018 and/or 2022 edition and South Korea, Indonesia and Qatar have all applied to host only the 2022 version.

Blatter said he had talked over the deal proposal with Michel Platini, president of UEFA.

"There is a movement at the moment among the various candidates that in the end it would be a good solution... if the candidates for 2018 would only be those from Europe," said Blatter.

"It's not been finally decided but it's the idea, also to make the work of FIFA easier and especially that of the executive committee," he added.