On 16/12/09, the City of Leicester was left shocked and devastated after The Football Association of England decided against including Leicester on their list of potential cities for the 2018 World Cup, should England win the rights to host the prestigeous tournament. Leicester had been expected to be on the list as it is rich in history, has a wide, diverse range of nationalities within it and is the second biggest City in the English Midlands, behind Birmingham. However, The FA decided to choose the footballing non-entities of Milton Keynes, Bristol and Plymouth ahead of Leicester, as well as Leicesters local rivals Nottingham. This despite the fact that Leicester had a much stronger bid.

Leicester is a wonderful, colourful city that is amongst the most diverse and unified in Europe. It is full of different nationalities, languages, religions and cultures from through out the world, from India to Indianapolis, and from to Toulouse to Trinidad. As well as the diversity, Leicester also has a strong economy, many tourist attractions through out the City and a rich sporting heritage, with both Leicester City Football Club and Leicester Tigers Rugby Club having much success through the years and decades. The stadium that would be used for the World Cup, The Walkers Stadium (home of LCFC) only needs minor construction doing to it, with either the Main Stand or East Stand having an extra tear adding to it to raise the capacity from the current 32,500 to the 45,000 desired for the World Cup. The four cities mentioned above all need dramatic work doing, either to existing stadiums or to build new stadiums. The work needed to extend The Walkers Stadium would take a small percentage of the time and money that must be invested into the above mentioned cities.

Milton Keynes is a Town that whos biggest selling point is the fact it is full of concrete cows and roundabouts. Everything about MK is largely manufactured, including the football club and the town itself. It has NO history, either as a town but more to the point as a footballing location. MK Dons are only averaging attendances of 9,000, this despite the fact they were created over 5 years ago and have a brand new stadium at their disposal. How on Earth can anybody, not least the countrys governing footballing body, believe that this place should be a World Cup venue? I dont know much about Plymouth as a City, but I cannot for one minute believe that they have anything like the infestructure needed to host World Cup football.
Their home attendances are also very poor, amongst the worst in the Championship. The stadium, Home Park, will need virtually a complete re-construction to get to the 45,000 capacity it apparently wants. The only reason for Plymouth being picked, I believe, was for newspaper and media headlines and for the false fantasy that it will leave behind a legacy (yeah, a legacy of a 45,000 stadium that will never be full and a football club that could well be non-league by 2018!) Nottinghams bid revolves fully around a stadium that, as far as I know, hasnt even been granted building permission yet! Its all very well saying oh yes, we will have a 50,000 seater stadium by 2018, but realistically what is the chances that will happen? I can not for one minute see Nottingham having that stadium built in time, unless they get to the Premier League and stay there, which I dont see happening any time soon. There is a false assumption that Nottingham is the biggest and best city in the East Midlands. But, of course, the truth is that Leicester is the biggest city. Leicesters city population is 330,000, compared to Nottinghams 249,000. With Bristol, there is still an issue about the new stadium not yet built, Until something is a FACT, in this case Bristol having a 42,000 stadium, it can not be assured or assumed that they will have their new stadium. And, even if they do build it, what will happen after the World Cup? A 42,000 stadium that is only a third full? Again, another false legacy idea. There are also potential problems with the bids in Liverpool and Leeds.

The FA said they picked a list that was the least likely to be cause problems and it is low risk , yet to me it seems that they chose the highest risk list they could possibly choose! Theyve picked three cities (Bristol, Nottingham and Liverpool) who dont even have the stadiums built yet, Plymouth which needs a massive reconstruction of their current stadium, Leeds which has an old stadium and a town In Milton Keynes that does not have anything like the infestructure needed to cope with World Cup football. How is that a low risk list?! Leicester had a solid bid, the above mentioned above do not. And, their is no logical reason as to why Leicester should be excluded. As a city, we deal with regular crowds in excess of 27,28,000, going up to 30,000 at least once per season over the last two seasons, and if the City and Tigers are playing on the same weekend, the city has to cope with two large attendances in two days, and it is successful every time. MK, Plymouth and Bristol have no experience of that, certainly not at the same level Leicester has. Wouldnt it appear that Leicester has a bid which is more low risk?

Next December, the England bid goes to FIFA Commitee. Now, unless in the next year the four cities offerings have become more concrete and certain, I do not see how any sensible persons could possibly choose Englands wishy washy, almost fantasy style bid of we hope there will be a new stadium there and we will leave a footballing legacy in Plymouth ahead of solid bids like that of Spain-Portugal. And any sensible commitee would see that the likes of Plymouth and Milton Keynes do not have the neccesary requirements to fulfill World Cup football. The England bid as it stands is very flimsy, very dreamy and very unsafe, whereas Spain and Portugal already have a solid infestructure. The decisions made by The FA to include cities who have severe and deep questions surrounding them could ultimately backfire dramatically. If England IS chosen, there will be around 7 and a half years for the four debatable cities to get their acts together. 7 and a half years is a long time to get things going, but its also a long time for things to go terribly wrong. We are currently going through recession, and it is quite possibly that the four cities could all suffer problems financially and logistically. Remember, Bristol, Plymouth and Nottingham ALL need either new stadiums, or dramatically reconstructed stadiums.

So, I put it to you that Leicester SHOULD be on the list for the potential England based World Cup in 2018 because;

a) the diversity of Leicester is incredible and people across the world know of Leicester

b) Leicester has a stadium that is already built and would need only moderate construction to put it up to World Cup standard, whilst other cities require huge investment and construction to get their cities up to standard.

c) Leicester has a much greater infrastructure than Milton Keynes and Plymouth and has far superior experience of dealing with thousands of sports fans through out a weekend and could cope much better.

d) Leicester has more history as a city and this should be taken into consideration.

Leicester deserves World Cup football.

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