“There are no borders between our countries, but there is a lot of friendship,” they stressed. “Remember, we successfully hosted EURO 2000.”

“These two neighbours are founder members of FIFA,” said FIFA president, Joseph S. Blatter. FIFA explained that it was important for the governing body to have only one point of contact at local organising committee level.

Blatter also noted that other countries were already planning to submit bids. “It says everything about the popularity of football in general and the FIFA World Cup in particular that we already have concrete proposals for the 2018 World Cup.”

The FIFA Executive Committee will allocate the hosting rights for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ in 2011.