According to a published report, CONCACAF president Jack Warner said Canada could have a shot at the 2014 World Cup of soccer if it teamed up with the United States to co-host the event.
Warner said, “based on what we’ve seen, I don’t see why we can’t have a co-hosting between Canada and the United States or some such combination”.
The CONCACAF federation covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said at the Asian Football Conference annual congress in Kuala Lumpur that after 2010 the tournament might go “somewhere in the Americas”.
Canada’s national organizing chairman and former president of the Canadian Soccer Association, Jim Fleming, said, “Canada has already indicated its interest in hosting a future World Cup. That offer was extended after consultation with the government of Canada. There are ongoing discussions about putting together the blueprint”.
Paul DeVillers, federal secretary of state for sport, confirmed that Ottawa is behind the bid. “We’ve been having discussions and we’re working on that together”, he said.
He added if it took a co-hosting type of arrangement, “I think we’d be interested in pursing that” and it would be easier logistically than the event just staged in Korea and Japan because Canada and the U.S. share a border and the governments and soccer federation have a good working relationship with each other.
Fleming said a feasibility study that has already been undertaken to support a bid shows hosting the World Cup would have a positive impact on many sectors of the Canadian economy.
