TAXPAYERS in Manchester will have to spend up to £30m if the 2018 World Cup comes to England.

Officials at the Town Hall estimate the figure – roughly equivalent to the transfer fee City paid United for Carlos Tevez - will be needed to cover marketing, promotion and clearing up after matches.

But while multi-million pound football clubs regularly spend the sum on a single player, the cost of bringing the game's premier tournament to Manchester will be passed on to council tax payers.

A report by Manchester city council, seen by the M.E.N, estimates between £25m and £30m should be set aside in case England wins the right to host the tournament.

Manchester was chosen last month as one of the potential host cities but it will not be until December 2010 that the winning country is announced by football's world governing body, FIFA.

Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley, said it was absurd to expect taxpayers to pay out for hosting the tournament and called on FIFA to pick up the bill.

“It’s ludicrous,” he said. “The public sector should not have to pay anything. I met the chief executive of the bid and told him it was completely and totally absurd. Asking the public sector to pay when they will make a fortune beggars belief.”

Matthew Elliott, from the TaxPayers Alliance, says businesses, not tax payers, should foot the bill.

Struggling

He said: “The main ones who benefit from these types of event tend to be businesses. So if the council are to put together a viable plan they should approach local businesses to fund it.

“Council tax payers have seen their bills rise massively so residents and already struggling are not going to appreciate this.”

Peter Carr from Assheton Bowmen, an archery club in Manchester, also slammed the move and said taxpayers money should be spent on minority sports rather than football.

He said: “We don't even own our own building. Just one per cent of that money would do it. We are totally self funded and it can be a bit of struggle.”

Peter added: “Why can't the footballers put their hands in their own pockets? Some of them are on £170,000 a week. If each Premier League player donated a week's wages that would cover it. Why should the tax payers suffer?”

Manchester city council estimates that hosting the matches in Manchester would bring over £80m to the city as thousands of football fans spend money on hotels, restaurants and in the shops.

Old Trafford and Eastlands have been earmarked to stage games. Council officials are hoping around 12 matches will take place in the city, including two groups, a quarter final and a semi final.

Manchester council is putting together the bid even though Old Trafford is actually just over the border in the neighbouring borough of Trafford.

The council has already had to spend £150,000 to prove Manchester was capable of hosting matches.

Council leader Richard Leese confirmed that extra funds would be earmarked if England wins the 2018 bid.

He said: that it would bring 'enormous economic benefits to the city which would far outweigh any costs'.

Sir Richard added: "If the World Cup does come to Manchester it will be a guaranteed win for the city.” “Analysis shows that when Munich hosted games in the 2006 World Cup some £80 million poured into its economy.

“We would expect the benefits here to be even greater, not least taking into account inflation and the fact that we would hope to host more games than Munich did.”

His comments were backed by council treasurer Richard Paver.

He said: “It's important to note that this prudent estimate of between £25m and £30m relates to the predicted overall costs to the city, including some related to both public and private partners, and not just the cost to the City Council.

“The overall cost will be offset as we would expect to be able to attract sponsorship, funding and make savings by drawing on our existing resources and those of our partners as well as working closely with other host cities.”

A council spokesman said that Manchester will now work with the FA to bring forward a national budget for hosting the event which will be required at the time England's formal bid is submitted to FIFA.