Benelux 2018 World Cup Bid: “Let’s Turn A Dream Into A Reality”

Last year Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg expressed their interest in a joint bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The goal of the bid according to the Benelux 2018 website beltomundial: “On behalf of the smaller nations, to assert the right to organise a global event on condition that we shape ourselves into an organising body capable of coping with all aspects of this major sporting and human event.” The bid director is Alain Courtois, the man responsible for Belgium’s part of the Euro 2000 co-host with the Netherlands. Some argue that this bid is fruitless considering that Sepp Blatter said in the past that there would be no more joint World Cup bids. The only jointly hosted World Cup was 6 years ago in Japan/South Korea. Daryl had an interesting post about co-hosting football events. A part of his argument was: “Problem is that co-hosting means two teams automatically qualifying. That’s two out of sixteen teams automatically qualified, which is a bit of a problem if those teams turn out to be the two worst in the tournament.” Well the Oranje have always been a European powerhouse. Just look at how beautifully their game has been during this Euro. They just wrecked the notorious Group of Death with 9 points, 9 goals from 7 different players, and 1 goal condeded! The Rode Duivels on the otherhand have not performed so well lately and we did get knocked out early in the Euro 2000 when we jointly hosted it with the Netherlands. However, the World Cup really is a different story than the Euro. The stakes are much higher and I know that Belgium will at least make it to the knockout round if we do co-host.

If Benelux does host in 2018, all matches will be played in the Netherlands and Belgium. Furthermore, Luxembourg would not automatically qualify for the tournament like the other two nations. I think it will be very hard for the bid to succeed. We are up against potential bids from England, Australia, United States, Canada, Greece, Russia, Mexico, Spain/Portugal, Qatar, and Israel/Palestine (in an effort to support peace). Among those candidates, England stands as one of the favorites to win. No country has yet submitted an official bid. Yves Leterme said that Belgium should get 4 new stadiums with a capacity of 40,000 and one that holds 60,000. 7 Belgian cities are interested in hosting matches including: Brussels, Genk, Charleroi, Antwerp, Liège, Ghent and Bruges.

Daryl’s co-hosts article: http://euro2008.worldcupblog.org/news/future-of-co-hosts-rests-with-austria-tonight.html