Europe and US Ready to Celebrate FIFA World Cup Hosting Rights

The 2014 World Cup will be in beautiful Rio de Janeiro.

This past week the U.S. withdrew from the 2018 bidding, which had been in discussion for months, to just focus on 2022. What did England do once this news broke? Withdrew almost immediately for the 2022 hosting rights. The U.S. knew they had no chance—they were going against all of Europe, the center of the soccer world. England is confident they will earn the right to host the world's biggest sporting event in 2018. They withdrew because if they get hosting rights for 2018, they won't qualify for 2022, anyway.

Does 2022 sound way far away? Personally, I think FIFA should be announcing the 2018 decision alone this December. The excitement is built up for both announcements, but spreading these announcements up will grow anticipation. It gives FIFA an extra excuse for more publicity to spread the announcements out.

Where the 2018 World Cup should be: Spain/Portugal.

Why? David Villa...Cristiano Ronaldo...why else? Give the stars their home-field advantage. They are soccer crazy over there, and after winning this past July, they will be even more excited. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go over there for a month.

The announcement: December 2

There are over 1,121,615 Americans that have signed the U.S. bid to host the World Cup already, showing we do really want it here (http://www.gousabid.com/), with Philadelphia and Indianapolis in the lead for supporters. We will be competing with Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

PS: Be prepared England—you have the Olympics coming up, too.

In other news...Tim Brewster, head coach...oops, ex-head coach of the Minnesota Gophers Football team, has been relieved of his coaching duties...maybe my Gophs will turn around for the last few games of the season.

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