UEFA boss would be in support of Brit bid
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has given his backing to the 2030 World Cup being held in England – or a combined British effort.
The Slovenian said earlier in the week that it will be “Europe’s turn” to host the tournament, following 2022 in Qatar and a 2026 event tipped to take place in North America.
Ceferin has now gone further by backing a return to Britain for the first time since England hosted and won the 1966 World Cup.
He said: “For me, they are absolutely capable from an organisational and an infrastructure point of view.
“Of course it’s a decision not just for the FA, probably the Government and all the others too.
“But you know everything about English or British football, so they deserve to have a World Cup in the near future.
“I don’t know how much encouragement they need but they are capable of organising the World Cup, I’m sure. That’s the decision of the Football Association and if they decide to go, we will strongly support them.
“They will have all our political support. I just hope we will not have two European bidders, because that would not be good.
“The ideal situation would be to have one European bidder and then all of Europe stands together.”
Ceferin also addressed the corruption scandal which saw his predecessor Michel Platini and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter suspended from football for four and six years respectively.
The pair each had their bans cut from an initial eight years after appealing against sanctions relating to a £1.3million payment made to Platini in 2011.
“With those, let’s call them ‘FIFA matters’, even UEFA’s image was damaged,” said Ceferin.
“But I still think FIFA is improving. Things are changing. It’s not easy, there are many internal interests and there are many, many people that were involved in FIFA and want to stay there.
“But at the end, FIFA will have to change completely or it will hurt all the football organisations around the world.”