Japan ‘´to drop 2018 World Cup bid’ to focus on 2022

Japan is likely to abandon its attempt to host the 2018 football World Cup to concentrate on bidding for the 2022 tournament, it was reported today.

“We are going to decide on it officially at the bidding committee meeting next Tuesday,” Japan Football Association President Motoaki Inukai was quoted as saying by sports daily Sports Nippon on Wednesday.

Education, Culture, Sports and Science Minister Tatsuo Kawabata, who visited FIFA President Sepp Blatter in Zurich with Inukai, said the Swiss told them it would be better to bid for the 2022 World Cup, as there would be tough competition from European nations to host in 2018.

FIFA requires World Cup host countries to have about 12 stadiums with more than 40,000 seats, and at least one with more than 80,000, but Japan’s largest venue, the International Stadium in Yokohama, has a capacity of only 72,000.

Japan co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea, the first time football’s premier tournament has come to Asia.

African countries are barred from bidding for the 2018 tournament as the 2010 World Cup will be staged in South Africa, while Latin American countries are ruled out of competition for both 2018 and 2022 as Brazil is hosting in 2014.

FIFA will choose the hosts of both 2018 and 2022 tournaments in December 2010.