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Blatter rules out China for 2014 World Cup
2006-12-02
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out a China bid to host the 2014 World Cup, saying the Chinese should look at least four years down the road to 2018. Blatter, in Doha to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games later Friday, said the 2014 World Cup would go to South America under the current system of rotating the competition between continents. "The 2002 tournament was in Asia, followed by Europe in 2006 and South Africa will be in 2010," Blatter told a news conference here. "So 2014 will go to South America and the big contender there, although it has not yet been decided, is naturally Brazil." Chinese state media said Friday that Beijing, hosting the Olympics in 2008, wanted to attract other world tournaments including the World Cup in 2014. "Following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our plan is to apply to host the 2011 World Swimming Championships and the 2014 World Cup," the Beijing Times quoted Sun Kanglin, head of the Beijing Sports Bureau as saying. The host country for 2014 will be announced at the FIFA Congress in 2008. "For 2018, under the system of rotation of the World Cup, we can say that the bid is open and a bid by China would be welcome," said Blatter. China took part in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea for the first time, but faired poorly and then failed to qualify for the 2006 edition in Germany.
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