Unnecessary Wheeling and Dealing

We are just over two months away from finding out whether a swarm of blaring vuvuzelas will mix with tomahawk chops in the United States for either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup. If England's Football Association have their way, the US shouldn't bother with 2018.

A spokesman for The FA said today he expects the US Soccer Federation to withdraw their bid for the 2018 World Cup and focus on 2022. In response to that England would, to quote the spokesman, "almost certainly withdraw from 2022." (Which is easy for him to say, as the United States remains the only non-UEFA nation still bidding on 2018, and FIFA rules now prohibit a continent from hosting consecutive cups.) However, Go USA Bid executive director David Downs issued assurances that the US remain in the hunt for either cup.

I'm not sure why England would vocally suggest the US opt out of the 2018 matchup, considering the fracas that nearly scuttled their bid four months ago. While FIFA rejected the claims of bribery made by soon-to-be-ousted FA chief Lord Triesman, it was still quite foolish to make such an accusation.

With the FIFA evaluation teams completing their tour of all nine candidate nations (or nation pairings, in the case of Spain/Portugal and Benelux), the decision rests on them. In the meantime, Americans eager to support the bid can continue to make it known by visiting the bid's Web site.