Indonesia dropped from World Cup bid list
Reuters - Friday 19 March 2010, 16:10
ZURICH - Indonesia has been dropped from
the race to host the 2022 World Cup due to a lack of government
support, football's governing body FIFA said on Friday.
"We have informed Indonesia that because they failed to
provide a number of documented guarantees by the deadline,
Indonesia is not any more a candidate for 2022," FIFA general
secretary Jerome Valcke told reporters.
"They are out of this process."
The announcement leaves Australia, England, Japan, Mexico,
Netherlands/Belgium, Russia, Spain/Portugal and the United
States as candidates for the 2018 or 2022 finals while Qatar and
South Korea are bidding for the finals in 2022 only.
Indonesia were regarded as rank outsiders to stage the
tournament.
"When countries bid to host a World Cup, we ask for a number
of government guarantees with regard to a number of things to
make sure the tournament is organised is the best way possible
as the International Olympic Committee also does," said Valcke.
"The deadline was December 2009 and we asked them many, many
times but the government itself said their main concern was the
people of the country and they would not support the bid
committee."
An Indonesian government official told Reuters in February
that the priority for the country should be on improving the
standard of the lowly ranked team rather than hosting the World
Cup.
Organisers of the surprise bid had pledged to build seven
new stadiums with matches to be played in 11 major cities.
Follow FFT.com on Twitter
Join FFT.com on Facebook