As reported earlier this week on the STO, FIFA officials are currently here visiting in the States on official business and the voting committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup will visit 5 of the 18 select cities that could possibly be involved in hosting World Cup matches for one of those two summers. It is widely rumored that Europe will be the destination of choice for the 2018 installment with England, Spain-Portugal, and Holland-Belgium leading the competition. But the 2022 tournament is still wide open for consideration and America is considered one of the favorites for that event along with Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea all as potential hosting destinations.
And this Wednesday the committee visited the White House in Washington D.C. to begin their remaining three day tour and the FIFA officials were rumored to be having breakfast at the president’s home. There was no word on whether or not Barack Obama would be able to attend the meal with the select officials, but there would definitely be a few cabinet members and senior members of Obama’s staff present at the meeting along with perhaps former president Bill Clinton who is the chairman of the U.S. bid and is an avid fan of the most beautiful game.
Among the issues expected to be discussed during the meal included the select locations in which the tournament’s debut and final match would be hosted. The leading candidates for the venue are currently New Meadowlands Stadium and Cowboys Stadium at the moment. Both stadiums are newly built and state of the art in design. The Cowboys Stadium is of course well known for it’s gigantic television screen that covers over eighty yards in length across the pitch and the New Meadowlands Stadium is set to open this weekend for it’s first NFL action.
Both stadiums are wide enough to host a soccer match unlike a few of the venues selected for the 1994 World Cup final and the Dallas Cowboys stadium can fit well over 100,000 spectators inside it’s doors for a match. The FIFA officials next stop on the five day tour that started Monday in New York was to Miami, Florida where they were expected to visit Sun Life Stadium which most recently hosted the Super Bowl last NFL season.