Bin Hammam, who, as one of the 23 members of the ruling Board, will choose which country is chosen as the host to follow Brazil, today said that he would be supporting Australia's candidature ahead of England.

 

In the process, the president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also appeared to rule out a bid from his home country Qatar, who had been widely expected to put themselves forward following the disappointment of controversially missing out on the 2016 Olympics.

 

Bin Hammam said: "I saw one serious bidder and that's Australia.

 

"Definitely I am very much supporting that.''

 

Bin Hammam had supported Australia's bid in 2006 to transfer from the Oceania confederation to become a member of the AFC because it presented better opportunities to improve standards and said that he considered their bid to be an Asian one.

 

Earlier in the week, as reported on insidethegames, FIFA President Sepp Blatter had said that he wanted a European country to host the 2018 World Cup as South Africa was staging the 2010 edition of the tournament.

 

In May during the FIFA Congress in Sydney he had urged Australia to concentrate their efforts on winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup, which is due to be awarded in 2011 at the same time as the 2018 event to maximise marketing opportunities.

 

It is expected that, if Blatter's proposal is accepted, then the race to stage 2018 will come down to a battle between England and Russia, which has never hosted the tournament and is the fastest growing commercial market in Europe and has the backing of Adidas, a long-time sponsor of FIFA.

 

But Bin Hammam said England had a good chance of hosting the World Cup for the first time since 1966 when Bobby Moore lifted the trophy after his team beat West Germany 4-2 in the final.

 

He said: "The birthplace of modern football hosted the World Cup only once and it was 40 years ago.

 

"With all its passion for football there are lots of positive points supporting England.''