TOWN hall chiefs are being forced to spend up to £150,000 to prove Manchester is capable of hosting World Cup matches even though the city's stadiums will be essential to the British bid.
In a move dubbed 'ludicrous', the Football Association is making Old Trafford and Eastlands go through the same process as the likes of Plymouth and Portsmouth.
Process
The FA is hoping to host the tournament in 2018 and have launched a bidding process for cities that want to host matches.
As a result Manchester council is set to earmark £150,000 next week to fund their application. Blackley MP Graham Stringer has accused the FA of enforcing 'a ludicrous waste of taxpayers money'.
He believes the city, one of world football's major capitals, should be an automatic choice. The FA have decided to launch the process in 'accordance with the best practice of FIFA', the game's governing body.
They say they have done so to 'ensure the widest participation amongst English stadiums and cities' and to 'capture the highest quality of creative thinking as a result of proposals being made by host cities'.
Sixteen cities have applied and will present their cases ahead of the 6 November deadline. The final decision will be made on 14 December with England learning if its bid is successful the following December. Council chiefs say hosting matches could be worth £80m to the city.
Both Old Trafford and Eastlands have staged European cup finals in recent years. And with room for 76,000 and 47,000 spectators respectively, they also comfortably meet FIFA guidelines that grounds should have capacities of at least 40,000. Of the other bidders only Newcastle, Sunderland, London and Birmingham possess stadia that currently fit the bill.
And some of those suffer from poor transport links. Others such as Hull, Derby, Milton Keynes and Bristol would have to spend millions to meet the criteria.
And neither of Liverpool's two stadiums are up to scratch. Manchester council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has had to set up a World Cup team in an attempt to make sure the city does not miss out. It includes United, City and Salford and Trafford councils.
Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, Greater Manchester Police, Manchester Airport and Marketing Manchester are also involved.
He said: "Manchester is part of a bidding process which is being run by the FA in accordance with FIFA best practice guidelines which are designed to ensure a rigorous examination of each city's case.
'Benefits'
"Welcoming an event of the magnitude of the World Cup in Manchester would bring enormous economic benefits to the city. Analysis shows that £80m poured into Munich's economy as a result of hosting games in the last tournament and we would expect even greater benefits if we are successful.
"On top of the jobs and investment the event would bring, it would ensure a buzzing festival atmosphere and underline Manchester's international reputation."
Mr Stringer, an avid football fan, has slammed the FA. He said: "This pointless exercise is just a ludicrous waste of public money that will only go on pumping up the egos of the blazers who run the FA.
"They would be in a total mess if Old Trafford and Eastlands were not involved in the bid. They are two of the top three stadiums in the country. Let's see them try and run it without us." Spokesmen for United and City said they backed the city's bid did not want to get involved in political issues.
A spokesman for England 2018 - part of the FA - said the process was in place to make sure host cities met FIFA criteria.
He said: "Sixteen cities from across the country are currently involved in the England 2018 Host City Evaluation Programme. The process is a key component of the England 2018 technical bid and is specifically designed to ensure that the cities bidding to be part of our bid to FIFA are able to provide all areas of infrastructure, including stadiums, security, transportation and accommodation at the level required to satisfy the criteria laid down by FIFA.
'Inspection'
"England 2018 is currently undertaking the second set of inspection visits as part of the evaluation process and we have been extremely encouraged by the ambition, creativity and passion all 16 cities have so far demonstrated."
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Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
Andanotherthing, Mcr (05/09/2009 at 08:11)
Mark, South Manchester (05/09/2009 at 09:57)
Good luck to the likes of Plymouth and the South West. That area of the country shouldn't be ignored. Guess it will never happen in our London dominated country, but "all regions" of England should be treated equally!!
MPs gravy train, UK (05/09/2009 at 10:44)
N Harris, STALYBRIDGE (05/09/2009 at 11:10)
Rasputin II, >Forward Manchester> (05/09/2009 at 11:13)
Gankaku69, Manchester and Proud of it (05/09/2009 at 11:19)
This is pathetic, United and City would not even notice that money and the clubs will benefit the most, it is the usual greed, we pay for it and they profit from it.
Manchester has proved it can hold such events with the Euro’s and Commonwealth Games, and both time was proud to be in a city that had all these thousands of different fans all getting on with each other.
So they should have a fund created by the businesses who will profit from this event.
Bendroflumethiazide, manchester (05/09/2009 at 12:12)
buzzinblue, jersey (05/09/2009 at 12:24)
Guten Tag, Manchester (05/09/2009 at 12:25)
Noel Knows (05/09/2009 at 12:38)
City, the only team in Manchester when it suits them!!
redted, Manchester (05/09/2009 at 12:42)
lebist, blackley (05/09/2009 at 13:03)
davmac, manchester (05/09/2009 at 13:10)
MancunianHumbersider, Radcliffe (05/09/2009 at 13:16)
I would certainly agree with that statement but, MEN, you should have reworded that sentence slightly to state "some of those cities such as Hull suffer from poor transport links". That is a fact. And yes, Hull would certainly have to invest millions, starting with a Metrolink system. As someone who lived there for 15 years and still has family living over there I am fully qualified to comment and can say that apart from the impressive state of the art £18m Integrated Bus/Rail transport interchange at Hull Paragon, the remainder of the transport network over there is shocking. No direct Transpennine Express trains in either direction from Piccadilly on weekdays after 18.30 and one train every 2 hours on a Sunday is disgraceful, not to mention the fact that last time I left Hull at 6.30 in the evening on a Sunday it took SIX hours to get back to Radcliffe using public transport. Now if we had Metrolink from Hedon in the East Riding into Hull I wouldn't have had to wait an hour and a half for my train connection.
Hull needs a transport system equivalent to Metrolink to stand any chance of becoming a successful bidding city. On a tangent slightly, next time anyone criticises your tram system just be thankful that you have one. I have been campaigning for years and will continue to do so through the Hull Daily Mail, Radio Humberside and other channels for our city to be given the funding to build its own system.
What is clearly needed is a PTE covering the whole of Humberside. Maybe GMPTE might consider taking over the joke of a transport system that currently serves that area and showing the good folk of Humberside how to run a proper transport system. It can do a far better job than the four councils that took over when the old Humberside County Council was killed off, the only reason for which was simply because people were obsessed with being in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and just did not like the whole concept of Humberside. Both Humberside and Greater Manchester were created in 1974 and I just can not understand why has GM proved so popular whilst Humberside been so derided.
From a transport planning perspective getting rid of Humberside in the first place was the most shortsighted decision ever in my opinion. Some of us are seriously envious of the strong local authority relationships you seem to have forged through AGMA and GMITA and I wish that our local politicians in the area formerly known as Humberside were as ambitious and committed to working together as yours are. Many of ours, especially in the East Riding are too insular and spend too much time fighting with each other to see the bigger picture; by that I mean looking beyond their local boundaries to see the regional benefits that a Humberside PTE would deliver which on face value would be at least similar to those enjoyed in Greater Manchester. Still not convinced? Well, try asking for the equivalent of System One at the travel centre at Hull Interchange and you are met with blank looks, a shrug of the shoulders and an "err nerr, we derrn't have owt like that".
And to think Hull thinks of itself as a Top Ten City. It has a long way to go from a transport perspective.
Saddleworth is Blue (05/09/2009 at 13:44)
City, the only team in Manchester when it suits them!!
Noel Knows
5/09/2009 at 12:38
Are we talking about stadia here or training complexes ?- if you care to google you will in fact find that gods own stadia is in fact based in Manchester and unfortunately for Trafford the swamp is blighting their landscape .
paul kirkpatrick (05/09/2009 at 13:45)
Chris (05/09/2009 at 13:57)
It must have escaped your attention that the shareholders and business owners to whom you refer employ alot of Mancunians. In fact they employ all of them that are in work.
Your comment makes no sense.
Andy P, Wythenshawe, Manchester (05/09/2009 at 14:44)
You boring boring fool. (another blue with nothing worthwhile to say).
BALL AND BAT, ALL OVER (05/09/2009 at 14:53)
Bring it on.
Pippa, Manchester (05/09/2009 at 15:12)
Guten Tag, Manchester (05/09/2009 at 15:19)
My argument is this, the Manchester taxpayer has to pay for the privilege of making the city 80 million, of which the majority of that windfall will go to shareholders and business owners (many of which may well not be Mancunians!). And yes, the cost may well only be a few quid per taxpayer, but why should we pay to make those already wealthy even more wealthy?
Proper Sentences (05/09/2009 at 15:24)
deejayvu, everywhere (05/09/2009 at 15:59)
Manc and Proud
Joe Whittaker (05/09/2009 at 16:04)
Do I now seek compensation with 85% of Mancunians(UNITED fans the majority as surveys have proved time and time again) for paying for the Council House for you and your"Tameside" bitters to enter?
I blame the Parents for making you clowns bitter Thanks a Million Dad for making me a RED Born and Bred.
UNITED=Blackley M9
N Harris, STALYBRIDGE (05/09/2009 at 16:05)
Whatever the reason 99 years ago United chose to move to a ground outside the City of Manchester.
These are the facts.