Leicester's World Cup bid is off to Wembley

Trusted article source icon
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Profile image for This is Leicestershire

This is Leicestershire

It is just 500 words, but it could be the beginning of a dream World Cup fixture for Leicester.

A document outlining how campaigners plan to make Leicester a host city if England is granted the 2018 World Cup was being couriered to Wembley Stadium today.

Officials will outline how they plan to expand the Walkers Stadium to a 45,000-seater venue to meet FA requirements.

They have also written an overview of the county which looks at accommodation, transport links and training facilities, as well as how fans festivals could be staged in Leicester for football supporters who do not have tickets to the game.

All 15 applicant host cities – including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Derby – will do the same today. In one week, an FA inspection team will visit Leicester to see the city and stadium.

Tess Booth, project manager for One Leicester, is helping co-ordinate the bid. She said: "It is about showing the FA we are going in the right direction.

"For the FA, this is the opportunity to respond to what we have done so far.''

Representatives of Leicester's bid team went to Manchester on Friday to a host city applicant day. They now know the Walkers Stadium will have to be expanded to a 45,000 capacity.

The bid team is working with organisations such as Loughborough University, district councils and Leicester Tigers, to offer training facilities. Tigers are also involved in England's bid to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which is the preferred choice of the International Rugby Board.

David Clayton, Leicester Tigers managing director, said: "If Leicester is successful in hosting a football World Cup, it would be a major achievement for a city to host World Cup events in rugby and football in the space of a few years.

"We are exploring if it would be possible for visiting football squads to use any of our facilities in their preparations."

Leicester City FC has also been heavily involved in putting together the outline bid.

Chairman Milan Mandaric said: "The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and attracts the biggest exposure you can get. We are excited and we'll do everything we can to support the bid."

An England 2018 bid spokesman said: "The outline document will form the basis of the final submission and is intended to provide initial information on the applications."

4
Tweet this article
Report

4 Comments

  • Profile image for This is Leicestershire

    by linda, leicester

    Thursday, July 09 2009, 1:36PM

    “stop moaning give us a chance
    of cause city and tigers can play on the same day ,
    we have in thae past with no trouble,
    lets have the world cup.///”

  • Profile image for This is Leicestershire

    by Si, Aylestone

    Wednesday, July 08 2009, 2:59PM

    “council parking wardens turn a blind eye to the dangerous and illegal parking in the aylestone park area every match day! it will get worse with the world cup! whose clever idea was it in the first place to put the walkers stadium in that location?”

  • Profile image for This is Leicestershire

    by john, Leicester

    Wednesday, July 08 2009, 2:57PM

    “I don't think for one moment that any world cup match will come to this Rubbish City of ours.”

  • Profile image for This is Leicestershire

    by pam, oadby

    Wednesday, July 08 2009, 11:46AM

    “we can't, as has been said by others, play rugby and football on the same day but the city council think we can host the world cup?!? if we could show that we CAN host both the tigers and lcfc on the same day (eg by providing free public transport to the city centre & stadiums) we might be more convincing when telling fifa we can handle the cup!”

        Add your comments

        max 4000 characters
         
         
         
         
         
         

        Tell us about your area

        Got some interesting news? Write about it and let your whole community know.

          Write an article