ASEAN Consider 2030 World Cup Bid

Tuesday, 18th January 2011 at 08:24am

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are thought to be considering a proposal to bid for the right to host to 2030 Fifa World Cup, the Singapore Football Association revealed on Monday.
The proposal was discussed during a recent meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers said Zainudin Nordin, president of the Singapore FA.
"It is possible for ASEAN to jointly host the event in 20 years time and to possibly meet the football standards then due to the aggressive football youth development programmes of ASEAN member nations," he said.
"A joint bid by ASEAN will raise the international profile of the region and will also unite citizens of the member nations," he added.
The 10-strong ASEAN group consists of Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei.
Four of the region's countries - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam - have previously co-hosted the Asian Cup back in 2007.
Indonesia began the bidding process for the right to host the 2022 finals, ultimately won controversially by Qatar, but withdrew before the vote in Zurich in December.
The vote to decide who will host the 2030 finals won't take place for another 10 years but the ASEAN group are the second to register an interest after Argentina and Uruguay mooted the possibility of a joint bid.
As demonstrated by the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 finals to Russia and Qatar respectively, Fifa are keen to take the World Cup to new footballing markets.
Awarding the finals to a number of hosts could prove problematic; Fifa would have to award a number of automatic qualifying spots thus affecting how many teams could qualify for the finals themselves.


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