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All eyes were on Argentina/Portugal, billed as the Messi v. Ronaldo clash by just about everyone, but I like to think of it as the inferior version of El Clasico.  Barcelona and Real Madrid are better than Argentina and Portugal in just about every way, mostly thanks to the Spanish internationals playing at the peak of their careers right now.

I don’t mean to snub great players like Ever Banega, Esteban Cambiasso, Joao Moutinho or Raul Meireles, and I am aware the match was a friendly and so the players, mindful of upcoming games, may not have given everything.  And I do not think that only the Spanish contribute to the superiority of the club teams, but Casillas, Valdes, Xavi, Pique, David Villa, Puyol, Xabi Alonso, Ramos, Iniesta, and Pedro would surely find their way into the international set-up of either Portugal or Argentina.  Similarly, I think other Barcelona/Madrid players would do the same, especially Dani Alves, Mesut Ozil, Kaka and Eric Abidal.

While many rightly focus on Messi and Ronaldo as the two centerpieces of their teams, I believe last night’s match was really a battle between the coaches, and I can say that both won, despite the 2-1 scoreline favoring Argentina.  The underwhelming World Cup performances of both Argentina and Portugal were probably due to bizarre selection, and even stranger tactics from Argentina’s and Portugal’s respective managers.

Last night, finally, after an excruciating World Cup where Messi would collect the ball at the halfway line and attempt to create chances/dribble the entire opposition, Lionel was advanced to positions where he could much more effective.  The first goal even looked like one of those vintage Messi moments that have become his trademark of genius: the Argentine, on the right, ran at the (terrified) defenders at pace, cut in left at the top of the eighteen yard box, ran parallel to the goal line while skipping around two challenges, and then, when everyone was expecting a glory-finish, La Pulga split two more defenders with a pass so perfectly weighted that Angel di Maria could tap it around the goalkeeper with his weaker right foot.

If the top left corner of the eighteen yard box is called “La Zona Del Piero” in Italian football, the top right must now be called “La Zona Messi” in Spanish football.

And, finally Cristiano Ronaldo he has stopped being the lone center forward of Portugal.  While he certainly has the attributes of no. 9 finishers (pace, two-footed shooting, heading, goal-hunger bordering on selfishness, quick reactions), I think the new Ronaldo is better behind a forward, even a not-so-thrilling one like Hugo Almeida.  And while CR7 still has the tendency to try huge shots from distance that rarely come off, Ronaldo is more likely to pass with someone in front of him, to involve players like Nani in the buildup, etc.  Portugal look much better for this tactical shift.  The painful long passes to Ronaldo that we all saw towards the end of Portugal/Spain in the World Cup are hopefully things of the past.

The new coaches of Argentina and Portugal, it seemed to me, may have swallowed their egos, their desires to find new ways to field the best players in the world and be hailed for it, and simply did the obvious: they played no. 10 and no. 7 in the positions from which they have profited the most at the club level.  There is no shame in taking lessons from great coaches, and if Paulo Bento and Sergio Batista were inspired by the style of Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson, and Jose Mourinho, then two of the best national teams in the world can only benefit.

Don’t let the title of this article fool you: of course I think Cristiano Ronaldo is still Portugal’s best player.  It’s just that sometimes recently, he’s had to do it on his own.  And when he hasn’t shown up to work, the results have been downright embarrassing.

In the past decade, football fans have witnessed Portugal wax to almost Euro 2004 winners and routine vanquishers of Brazil (in friendlies mostly, but still), and then wane to something less than.

Currently they occupy an ambiguous position where they’re not real contenders for a major international trophy, but on their day, can trash anybody.  It’s difficult to see them negotiating a knockout stage the way Spain did — beating Holland, Germany, Paraguay and of course, Portugal, to win the World Cup.  But it’s also hard to see them treading the Dutch’s route (Slovakia, Brazil, Uruguay before losing to Spain) or Germany’s (England and Argentina before losing to Spain).  What’s happening here?

During the 2010 World Cup they escaped their challenging group by avoiding loss to Brazil and got dumped out of the tournament by Spain.  Through this game we can see Portugal’s problem.  They still have  the problem today, but maybe they have a way out of it, too.  Towards the end of the Spain game and down a goal, the Portuguese team would often just lob a ball to lonely Cristiano Ronaldo up top, who was quickly and comfortably closed down by the Spanish defense.  The Portuguese support players didn’t know how to get past their Iberian counterparts, and the attacks usually died before the commentators could begin to describe it.

When talking about Spain, people can’t refer to “the support” because over half the team has ability to change games.  Fabregas, ostensibly a support player for Spain though clearly one of the most complete midfielders in England, played the ball to Iniesta to win the tournament.  The support team on Portugal can be the ten players behind Ronaldo, which is never the recipe for success in football.  I don’t mean to slight the very solid players they have, but as of summer 2010, only Cristiano Ronlado was a game changer.

Now, as Nani said of himself recently, there could be another one in the works.  While it’s easy to mock his arrogance, Nani is right in that he is winning games for Manchester United.  He is decisive, or at least he has been for the opening part of the season.  Whether he can continue this form will be vital for United, but more so for Portugal.

If someone can help the Real Madrid man create chances, take on opponents, score goals — and do this all well enough to win matches — then Portugal will have a much better chance than they’ve had in the past 2 major tournaments, where “Ronaldependencia” might have cost them.  Look at the demolition that Portugal inflicted on Spain most recently.  It’s not as if Ronaldo was the only player on the pitch.  To be sure he was excellent, and his excellence raised the game of his compatriots.  But Nani showed up in fine form too, making Portugal that much harder to contain.

It’s currently unclear if midfield players like Raul Meireles, Miguel Veloso and Coutinho can hold the center of the pitch adequately against top opponents, or if the center back pairing of Pepe and Bruno Alves will be stingy enough (after Carvalho hangs up his boots).  But perhaps a newly excellent Nani in attack, coupled with the exciting Fabio Coentrao and the always-determined Ronaldo can lead Portugal towards something great again.

This isn’t to say Nani is the only other good player on the team.  There is plenty of talent in Portugal, as evidenced by the savage defeat of Spain.  It’s just that of all the players, Nani is the most likely to help bring the team to new heights.

Amid the sort-of joy and sort-of pain that comes with the wins and losses of international friendlies (barring of course, the big rivalries that were played out on Wednesday — Argentina/Brazil, Spain/Portugal, England/France, etc.), FIFA managed to slip in an innocuous report on their website, complete with a link to a 23-page PDF evaluating the candidates for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.

And, shockingly early as it seems, “on 2 December 2010, the FIFA Executive Committee will announce its verdict and award the hosting rights to the two best candidates.”

Personally I’m still in a state of semi-exhaustion from the recent World Cup and the seemingly immediate uptake of the club season with all the drama of a suddenly competitive Premier League (do we have Manchester City’s money to thank?), a Real Madrid team that looks set to challenge Barcelona after two years of impossibly meek performances from Los Blancos, and the slide of Inter that coincided with the arrival of Rafa Benitez.  And now all of a sudden FIFA will make or break the hearts of hundreds of millions on Dec. 2.

So what does the longish report tell us?  What is buried in those 23-pages?

As it turns out, a whole lot of OK news for pretty much everybody.

The big question pertains to England and the reality TV worthy spat between the FA and the Russian Football union that resulted in some jingoistic nation bashing and not a whole lot else.  FIFA remained silent on the well publicized issue in this report, which isn’t terribly surprising given the ultra technical nature of the thing.  As an example from FIFA about Russia’s transportation issues:

“The country’s vastness and its remoteness from other countries, coupled with the fact that the high-speed railway network is limited and would only link six candidate Host Cities by 2018, would put pressure on the air traffic infrastructure, potentially causing transfer challenges in view of the lack of alternative means of long-distance transport. The current air traffic situation is to be improved throughmajor upgrades and capacity increases to the majority of the airports.”

If you braved that FIFA-always-attempting-to-be-neutral paragraph and are hoping for England for 2018, then you’re probably happy.  In short, the paragraph stated that transportation is an important feature of the World Cup and Russia’s infrastructure is currently inadequate.

But every nation was given a finger wag by FIFA.  It’s just hard to tell precisely which finger wag is a big deal.  For instance, FIFA raised concerns over legal issues regarding the United States’ bid, citing a lack of government guarantees.  This would seem to be a major issue, although FIFA noted that the USA has hosted a great deal of international events and the government has always complied in the past.

Similarly, the Iberian bid was questioned for not having a clear enough security plan, although again FIFA conceded that they would likely have solved such details in time to host the tournament.

In fact, the biggest criticisms that cannot be foreseeable altered to satisfaction in the next 8 or 12 years pertains to location and bid type.  For Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium, FIFA expressly notes that double bids are more challenging due to the “administrative, logistical and financial challenges” of two nations.

The other serious problem for FIFA seems  to be money.  In Australia, Korea and Japan, FIFA has noted that due to the time differences, “the income from Asia/Oceania would need to be increased substantially to offset the likelihood of loss of revenue in Europe.”

A last concern was the devastating heat of Qatar during June and July, which was essentially cited as a health risk to most people at the tournament, although such sentiment was phrased in far more polite language.

I would assume these three concerns would be FIFA’s greatest since they cannot be easily altered the way hotels, and even stadia and transport infrastructure can be, but FIFA’s history of making political decisions ahead of football ones suggest these obstacles aren’t insurmountable.

In conclusion, I sense England has come out of this evaluation slightly ahead of their rivals for 2018.  The criticisms against the bid seemed less severe than against the others, although again, in FIFA’s arid and conscientious tone, it is difficult to tell.

As for 2022, I feel the USA is an attractive option because of the very high potential for revenue (the highest ticketing revenue of all the bids) and its history in hosting.  Qatar has novelty but lacks the draw of all the other host countries in my lifetime.

With a UEFA winner guaranteed from 2018, the bids from Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium for 2022 have been rendered void due to consecutive hosting rules from FIFA.  With the remaining options, I feel that the winner will either be USA or Qatar (advantage US), based on the simple assumption that revenue loss will deter FIFA from the Asia/Oceania time zone.

Note 20/11/10: This article has been edited in light of an error regarding FIFA policy.

1. Croatia – Malta

Croatia beat Malta, no surprises there.  The only reason I start with this match is its status as a qualifier.  And to talk about Niko Kranjcar.  Harry Redknapp is unappreciative of the obviously gifted Croatian and the rumors are flying that he’s looking to leave.  I’d urge Mr. Redknapp to reconsider, especially after this performance.

While a brace against Malta is no brace against Spain, Kranjcar is the sort of player that Spurs should learn to manage in order to become more competitive.  He’s got the goods to play for a top team, and a sale to an EPL club would hurt their ambition.  With Lennon still not delivering, and over reliance  on Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart becoming problematic in the face of injuries, why not give Kranjcar a spot as a right sided attacking midfielder?

Next was Argentina against Brazil in Qatar…

2. Argentina – Brazil

Although Argentina won, I have more to say about Brazil, but first – Mr. Messi.  The real positive for Argentina is that Messi can have a so-so night and still decide to run half the length of the pitch before nutmegging his marker with a low shot that beats the keeper.  Sure it was only one goal and the defense didn’t seem to be moving at 100% pace, but a friendly of this nature is never a friendly.  Second, praise for Javier Pastore, who scored a hat trick this weekend but only partially showed why a big club will almost certainly splash out big money for him this summer.  If he gels with the Argentina front three Los Albiceleste will be a horrifying opponent for everyone.

That being said, Brazil to me looked better on the pitch.  If this were a league fixture I’d say a point a piece would be fair, but since only reputations (in a friendly) were at stake, I doubt many of the players, especially the veterans, will be beating themselves up too much about the loss.

A positive they can take from this is that Ronaldinho is not finished for them.  He was perhaps too much of a fantasia (an attempted back heel goal might have been buried by a swivel and hard shot) but it was his first performance for Brazil since Dunga had decided on the players he would take to the World Cup.

Lastly, Chelsea should take heart from Ramires’ wonderful performances at the center of the pitch.  He was a great marker but also wasn’t a bad when Brazil needed men forward.  If Carlo Ancelotti was watching, he might be considering how to tinker with the Chelsea lineup to get such efforts out of the Brazilian.

3. England – France

England lose and France win; an ancient rivalry marks another event; what else can we take from this?  It certainly seems that Laurent Blanc has go his players singing the national anthem; Fabio Capello doesn’t seem nearly as interested in making his England players display the same patriotic feelings.

As for football matters, the French deserved their victory.  They created more clear chances and looked the senior team, although they, like the Three Lions, had a fresher look about them than the teams of South Africa 2010.  While France’s new faces might be more a matter of long term plan than England’s (which may have been more injury related), the integration has been done more smoothly.

With players who have amassed plenty of club caps but fewer international caps (Adil Rami, Mathieu Valbuena), Les Blues played a more balanced game.  There were no Kieran Gibbs on the pitch for France, a player thrown into England with fewer than 35 Arsenal caps in all competitions, including those tough Carling Cup fixtures!  Instead, the youngsters for France (M’Vila and Sakho) has almost 50 caps in less than a season and a half for Rennes and over 100 for PSG, respectively. Both are considered integral parts of the set up; Gibbs is a fringe presence at Arsenal, especially this season.

Extras:

The Iberian Derby was a total rout.  Sergio Ramos apparently forgot what his teammate Ronaldo can do.  Mourinho seems to have held Ramos in check to great effect for Real Madrid.  Sure, he doesn’t bomb forward to terrorize the opponents as he used to, but Madrid is no longer left exposed to counter attacks.  Perhaps Spain should take a lesson.  Manchester United will be pleased to see Nani’s boast about being a top player wasn’t all talk, either.  As for Spain, the whole world knows how they play.  They seem unwilling to change the (very effective) philosophy.  Top teams with top coaches can exploit this.

With all the hype surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80m move from Manchester United to Real Madrid, a harsh reality is being forgotten. For a man who craves the spotlight, while he may be basking in the glory at the moment, there is a very real possibility that next summer, as all eyes turn to South Africa, that Ronaldo will become the forgotten man of world football.

With just four games to go in the FIFA World Cup European Qualifying, Portugal sit in third place in Group One, four points behind second placed Hungary and a seemingly insurmountable seven points behind top spot. Are we set to see a World Cup finals without the famous Portugal shirts?

For a country, which boasts the most expensive footballer in the world and who have been consistent features in the latter stages of the past few major football tournaments, to miss out on the worlds biggest sporting event might be unthinkable but it is a very harsh reality for Ronaldo and his countrymen.

Indeed were it not for an injury time winner from defender Bruno Alves in Albania last week, Portugal’s stars may already be booking their holidays for the summer 2010. For Ronaldo in particular, it is unimaginable that the spotlight should shine not on him but on other top stars such as Lionel Messi and new Madrid team-mate Kaka.

In the space of five days in early September, Portugal face a crunch double header which will determine whether or not they will be at the 2010 World Cup. First up, they travel to group leaders Denmark knowing that nothing less than a victory will be enough to keep their qualification hopes alive. Winning the group is already beyond Portugal, but they must ensure at all costs they are at least in a qualification play-off.

This match is followed on the Wednesday with an equally difficult trip to Hungary, who they will be hoping will have dropped points at home to Sweden five days earlier. Even in this scenario, it leaves the Swedes as another legitimate threat to Portugal’s qualification hopes.

The good news for Portugal is that their qualification fate is in their own hands. Four victories from their remaining four games will be enough to at least get them into a play-off. Furthermore, they certainly have a squad capable of achieving those four victories.

Now they just need to home the Ronaldo sideshow doesn’t derail their qualification hopes.

Written by Danny Watson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football news.

As a continent with such a wealth of excellent footballing nations there will, inevitably, be a few so-called ‘big boys’ from Europe who don’t make the final tournament in South Africa in 2010.  One nation that is in very real danger of being such a casualty is Portugal.  They may not be the most decorated or respected side in Europe but they made it through to the semi-final stage of the last tournament in 2006 and have some talented players amongst their ranks, not least Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal currently lie third in the FIFA World Cup European Qualifying : Group One Table and trail leaders Denmark and Hungary by seven points with just five games to play.  In the European qualifying tables, the top team from each of the nine groups automatically qualifies, with the eight highest runners-up going into four play-off matches, the winner of each play-off will earn a place in South Africa.

Portugal currently have just six points from five games and have won only once, drawing three and losing one.  Even if they do finish second in the group there is also a reasonable chance they could have acquired the lowest number of points and would therefore miss the play-offs, but this is a bit too hypothetical to get into at the moment so I’ll just stick to what is going on right now.

Basically Carlos Queiroz, the head coach of Portugal, has got a tough job on his hands and he will need close to maximum points from his next five fixtures.  The five games which will determine whether we see Cristiano Ronaldo and co line up in South Africa are as follows – Albania, Denmark and Hungary away followed by two final home games against Hungary and Malta.

The games against Albania and Malta look like easy wins and I doubt many would consider backing the Albanians or the Maltese to get anything out of Portugal with their international football betting.  However, their problem has been drawing too many games and if they slip up against either of these two sides the task in front of them will be very difficult, indeed the Malta game could prove fatal as it is their last qulaifier!  The game against Denmark and the two against Hungary are the very definition of ‘must wins’ for Queiroz as he has a fairly daunting seven point gap to close and only five games to do it in.

With five games to go it isn’t all over for the Portuguese but they’re going to have to win at least four of their last five to make the final tournament in South Africa.  Inevitably there will be some heavyweight casualties from Europe, with the Czech Republic and Turkey also looking in danger of missing the main event.  At the moment it looks a very real possibility that South Africa 2010 will be missing the skills of the likes of Ricardo Quaresm, Jose Bosingwa, Simao Sabrosa, Miguel Veloso and of course Cristiano Ronaldo.

A lot of football to keep track of this past week.  Copa Libertadores, Champions League, UEFA Cup, domestic leagues, it was a buffet of football.  The plethora of games makes it hard to choose a Team Of The Week but we got one and WOO! do we got one for you.  Remember that the TOW played matches and/or made headlines during the calendar week of April 6 – 12.  The World Cup Buzz World Football Team Of The Week is:

Futebol Clube do Porto (POR)

Dragões is the most successful team in terms of international trophies in the history of Portuguese club football and it trails only Benfica in domestic titles.  Porto traveled to Manchester on Tuesday and stunned the Old Trafford faithful with a 2-2 draw in the 1st leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie.  The Portuguese side showed no fear and attacked Manchester United.  Goals by Uruguayan striker Cristián Rodríguez and 2nd half substitute Mariano gave Porto 2 massive road goals and an excellent chance of eliminating the defending European champions.

Porto finished their week by beating Estrela Amadora 3-0 at home to maintain their lead in the Portuguese Liga over 2nd place Sporting Lisbon.  2 goals by ex-River Plate and ex-Estudiantes striker Ernesto Farias gave Porto the victory and extend their unbeaten streak to 17 games in the Portuguese Liga.  Porto’s last loss in any competition was a 1-0 loss to Naval in a Portuguese Liga match on November 1st, since then Porto is unbeaten in 27 matches in all competitions.

For their performance against Manchester United and their dominating up win domestically, The Dragões of Futebol Clube do Porto are the World Cup Buzz Team Of The Week.

With World Cup Qualifiers coming up in the next couple of weeks, its time for another Top 5 here on The Buzz.  These are the Top 5 things to watch for as teams compete to solidify their place for The Great Tournament in 2010 on The Motherland:

#1 – Maradona Starts To Feel Albiceleste Heat

El Pibe De Oro’s time as coach of the Argentine National Team really starts with upcoming South American World Cup qualifiers. Two friendly match victories over Scotland & France are well and good but he wasn’t hired to win friendlies. Maradona’s true abilities as a coach and personality manager will be put to the test when he leads Los Albicelestes versus Venezuela at home on March 28 and then on the road in the high altitude of La Paz against Bolivia on April 1st. If Maradona can break Argentina out of their disappointing form in qualifying then he will further elevate his place in world football lore.

#2 – What Will Africa Have In Store?

The Motherland will host The 2010 Great Tournament, in years past The World Cup has witnessed fresh faces in national team football most of them coming from Africa. The 2006 World Cup saw 8 teams qualify for the 1st time, 4 of them from Africa (Cote D’ Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Angola). This year, with teams like Gabon, Malawi, Guinea, and Burkina Faso surprisingly advancing to the final group stage and a Group of Death (Group 1) featuring Cameroon, Togo, Morocco, and Gabon. It is likely that the 2010 World Cup will see another 1st timer from Africa.

#3 – What Will Become Of Portugal?

The Portuguese National Team has given their countrymen nothing to cheer about lately as they have been thoroughly disappointing so far in World Cup qualifying. They sit in 4th place in Group 1 of UEFA qualifying behind Denmark, Hungary, and Albania. An unacceptable position for a team boasting talents like Deco, Pepe, and FIFA Player Of The Year, Cristiano Ronaldo. They have not scored a goal in their last 2 qualifying matches including a 0-0 home draw versus Albania. ALBANIA, that’s ridiculous, other than France’s Raymond Domenech is their a coach whose seat is hotter in Europe than Carlos Queiroz? Portugal face a struggling but always tough Sweden side in the upcoming qualifiers, while its not over for Portugal they need to win for their confidence and table positioning cause its obvious that getting points against group leaders Denmark & Hungary will be difficult.

#4 – Australia & Japan Could Begin To Pack

After this next round of qualifiers it is possible that Asia could have 2 of its automatic 4 spots filled for 2010. In Group 1, Australia and Japan are undefeated with Australia in 1st with 10 points and Japan in 2nd with 8 as Bahrain & Qatar follow with 4 points. Both Japan & Australia play at home this round with the Aussies taking on last place Uzbekistan and Japan facing Bahrain. There is an excellent chance that both teams will win making the gap between themselves and the bottom 3 even wider. Considering talent, form, and table position, Australia & Japan can pack their bags for South Africa if they win.

#5 – Can Costa Rica Give Sven A Bigger Headache?

In 2002 World Cup qualifying, Costa Rica pulled off the impossible by beating Mexico at Estadio Azteca. It was the only time that Mexico lost a World Cup qualifier at the Azteca. This time in 2010 WC Qualifiers, Los Ticos could really put El Tri in a bad spot if they can duplicate that same performance. Mexico’s coach Sven Goran Eriksson has been under fire since his hiring and every result has been intensely scrutinized. Mexico has not been impressive in reaching CONCACAF’s last six and many feel that if there is a year that Mexico could be knocked off their place as one of CONCACAF’s automatic representatives, it is this year. If Costa Rica can win once again at The Azteca, the pain Sven has been feeling in his head will transfer to his ass as the FMF kicks him off the bench.

Over the past few weeks, numerous nations have bid for the rights to host the 2018 & 2002 FIFA World Cup. Since the 2018 World Cup is closer most of the news about host nation bids concerns the 2018 tournament. With 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil,  nations from UEFA, CONCACAF, Asia can bid for the 2018 tournament so the decision on the host nation for 2022 tournament will be impacted by the winning bidder for the 2018 tournament.

Officially, there have been 6 confirmed bids with a bid from CONCACAF nations coming soon. Those nations interested in hosting the ’18 & ’22 tournaments have until February 2nd to submit an official bid. In Part I, we will look at 4 of the official bids and give an outlook on their chances of winning the right to host The Great Tournament.

AUSTRALIA

The Land Down Under has successfully hosted 2 Olympic Games, 1956 Melbourne & 2000 Sydney as well as 2 FIFA U-20s World Cups in 1993 & 1981 and 2003 Rugby World Cup. Aussies are not strangers to hosting big events and with the Australian A-League in full effect, the stadiums should be up to FIFA standards with infrastructure being a non issue.

Outlook: FIFA President, Sepp Blatter recently suggested that Australia concentrate on 2022 because the 2010 & 2014 World Cups would be in the Southern Hemisphere so Australia might be the front runner in 2022.

BELGIUM & NETHERLANDS
 &
The bid of Belgium & Netherlands is one of the two joint bids submitted to FIFA. The two main entities of the Benelux countries may be too small to host the World Cup. Right now, between Belgium & The Netherlands there aren’t 12 stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000 and 1 stadium of a capacity of 80,000 as per FIFA standards for hosting a World Cup, although Belgian officials have plans to upgrade stadiums to meet the requirements.

Outlook: A miracle if they get ’18 or ’22. Especially with a European joint bid like Spain & Portugal out there.

ENGLAND

The hosts & winners of the 1966 World Cup have the passion to pull off a great World Cup.  Stadiums won’t be a problem especially since the Stanley Park project for Liverpool will probably be complete by then.  If there is a problem in securing England’s bid it may internal politics between the hierarchy of the FA & the hierarchy of the Premier League. They will have to grill whatever beef they have and come together to win over the 24 member FIFA Executive Committee.

Outlook: Easily a serious candidate, Spain/Portugal bid is their biggest competition.

PORTUGAL & SPAIN
 &
The Iberian peninsula threw their marbles in the circle with a joint bid for the 2018 World Cup.  The Japan/Korea World Cup of 2002 proved that dual hosts can work.  Spain & Portugal have 8 of UEFA’s 5-star stadiums (3 in Portgual, 5 in Spain). Spain hosted the 1982 World Cup and Portugal hosted the Euro 2004.  Talk is that Latin American members of FIFA’s Executive Committee would vote for Spain/Portugal because of the cultural & language similarities.

Outlook: Shocked if they don’t get 2018 Tournament. Everything is set up well for a smooth tournament.

Part II is coming to analyze the last two known official bids and a couple of expected bids from CONCACAF that will make FIFA’s decision much tougher.