By Duncan Mackay
November 26 – England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup will today switch temporarily from the boardroom politics that are threatening to undermine the campaign when 15 cities from across the country will travel to Wembley Stadium to submit their cases to be included as part of the plans.
About 10 cities are expected to be chosen from the list that is led by major football centres like London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Derby, Hull, Newcastle, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland but also includes Bristol, Milton Keynes and Plymouth who hope that if they are chosen it will help them build new stadium or upgrade existing stadia.
As reported first on insideworldfootball, Portsmouth withdrew on Tuesday night because the City Council were not willing to provide the £15 million guarantee required by all the cities.
England 2018 are due to announce which cities have been chosen on December 16.
Between 12 and 18 stadiums will be selected for inclusion in England’s bid, which will be presented to FIFA in May 2010.
Four of the 15 cities – London, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield – will submit proposals that contain more than one stadium.
However, England’s bid can contain more than one city with two stadiums or more.
Manchester’s bid will include Eastlands and Old Trafford, the homes of Manchester City and Manchester United respectively, while Liverpool’s campaign centres around the yet-to-be-built new grounds of both Liverpool and Everton.
The proposal from Sheffield will focus on improvements to Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground and Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday.
London’s effort will be the largest bid, with four stadiums, including Wembley, which would host the opening match and the final, and the Olympic Stadium being built for the 2012 Games.
The first city due to hand over its bid document is Milton Keynes.
Dr Ann Limb, the chair of the team working to bring world cup football to Milton Keynes in 2018 says she is “very hopeful” of their bid being successful despite the city only having had a professional team since 2004.
She said: ”Many people thought we were underdogs at the beginning of our campaign but we have proven that there are many strong, compelling reasons why Milton Keynes should be successful and we are now being taken very seriously.”
Leicester’s campaign has been fronted by Gary Lineker, the former England striker and now BBC TV presenter who is coming under increasing pressure to put himself forward to replace Lord Triesman as the head of the bid.
Liverpool’s bid team will be led by Roger Hunt, a member of the England squad that won the World Cup the last time the tournament was held in this country in 1966.
He was joined by former Everton and England star Trevor Steven and Warren Bradley, the Leader of Liverpool City Council.
Bradley said: ”The city bid represents the sum of what Liverpool has to offer.
“We can guarantee, if chosen, we can give the country the best World Cup there has ever been.
“The bid team going to London are a great group of people representing the city’s footballing community.
“We head to London with the support of the city behind us.”
Bristol’s team will include Gary Mabbutt, the former England and Tottenham Hotspur defender as well as Aardman characters Wallace and Gromit.
Guy Price, from the Bristol 2018 bid team, said: “We’re really looking forward to submitting our bid as we feel it’s really strong.
“An awful lot of work has gone into getting us this far and we’re all excited about handing over our final proposals to England 2018.
“Now we just need to concentrate on getting one last major push of support behind us ahead of England 2018’s decision next month.”
A delegation of 16 representatives travelled from Plymouth to London last night and included Olympic diver Tom Daley, Argyle and New Zealand striker Rory Fallon and the club’s women’s and disabled squads.
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