With England established as the bookmaker’s favourites to host the 2018 World Cup, Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric has launched an ambitious bid for Leicester to host at least one world cup match during the competition.
Plans were being unveiled today at Wembley for the country to host its second world cup, the first since England’s triumphant victory in 1966. And Foxes chairman Mandaric, along with several other city suits, were heading down to the capital today to discuss ideas about the possibility of Leicester hosting a world cup match in 2018.
Mandaric: ‘The Walkers Stadium would make a magnificent venue to host World Cup matches, should England win the bid to host the 2018 tournament.
It is a stadium that was designed and built with the idea of potential expansion. We look forward to working with everyone on the bid team to try to turn this big idea into a reality.’
For the move to work in the city’s favour, Leicester’s Walkers Stadium would have to be increased to a 40,000 capacity ahead of the competition in order to meet FIFA World Cup regulations.
Along with the responsibility of hosting such a huge global event comes the daunting prospect of catering for over 200,000 supporters likely to visit the area for the competition. This would involve creating a number of fan camps (most likely in Victoria Park and Abbey park), containing large television screens for fans to view the match on. It is a concept which worked so well in Germany in 2006, and one that is likely to continue for world cups to come.
With the F.A searching for cities possessing suitable accommodation, good transport links and world class training facilities, Leicester will have to prepare long and hard to host world football’s most prestigious competition.
Announcements on chosen stadia will be made in December of this year.
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