A sold-out Maiden Castle hosts Durham and Sunderland in the FA Women’s Championship earlier this season. Alamy
Interest has soared after England’s Euro 2022 win but, with only 12 teams in the top division, huge chunks of the country have no access to elite matches
Away from the staged celebrations, Sasha Goryunov assesses the social and political consequences for the 2018 World Cup hosts As Russian football’s domestic season trundled towards its conclusion at the end of November, a collective feeling of ennui enveloped commentators and supporters across the country. St Petersburg, where Zenit fans celebrated the club’s second post-Soviet title, was perhaps the only exception. In Europe, as expected, Russia’s clubs gravitated towards the knockout stages of the Europa League. However, the decision taken in Zürich on December 2 gave Russia and its football a new sense of purpose. Or so it seems.
No one knows how much money hosting a World Cup makes (or loses). Ernst Bouwes reports
FA conservative analysis by [auditors] PWC calculates the economic benefit to England of hosting the FIFA World Cup™ at over £3.2 billion, creating thousands of new jobs and opportunities for the entire country.” So says the England 2018 bid on its website.
England need to get Jack Warner on side if they hold any hope of hosting the 2018 World Cup
As you know, the England team won’t be too busy this summer. So they are arranging a friendly for June, in Trinidad to celebrate the centenary of the FA there. This will be the first time that a full England team have played in the Caribbean, which is surprising, though not more so than the fact that their only ever game in Anglophone Africa was in Durban in 2003.