All aboard for 2018 (From The Northern Echo)

All aboard for 2018

12:35pm Wednesday 25th August 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Fifa officials who hold the country’s World Cup 2018 hopes in their hands visited the North-East yesterday. They were joined by Paul Cook.

EVERY footballer in the country dreams of pulling on an England jersey in a World Cup game and to do it on on home soil would be even more special. For a brief moment yesterday, the dream moved closer to reality as 44 teenagers took centre stage in front of the six-man World Cup inspection team.

Eight years from now, those same youngsters could be part of an England team playing in the World Cup.

Whether the tournament takes place in this country will be decided by the Fifa delegation, which had come to see the facilities, not the talent on show.

But it was the impact that the 2018 World Cup could have on the future of those young players that Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn, was keen to impress on the delegates.

Quinn said: “We are looking forward to building a legacy over the next eight years and then spread that around the world.

“It is important how we develop this region internationally and how we export this great football message around the world.”

The Fifa delegation’s visit to England follows tours of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Netherlands-Belgium and Russia – all of whom are vying to be the host nation.

By the time they make their announcement in December, the delegation will have finished their whirlwind tour in Spain and the US.

The six delegates spent yesterday morning in London listening to presentations on security, host cities and transportation.

They took to the air, making their way over potential stadiums, including the Emirates, White Hart Lane and the new Olympic Stadium in the capital, Stadium: MK in Milton Keynes, the venue of a new proposed ground in Nottingham and Leeds United’s Elland Road.

After a brief tour over Darlington, at 4.40pm their branded helicopter touched down in front of Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson’s hotel at Rockliffe Hall.

One-by-one, they jumped off their plush carriage to be greeted by hotel staff and taken to their next vehicle of choice – a fleet of golf buggies.

They were quickly whisked around the hotel and disembarked in front of the derelict walls of the mansion that was most recently owned by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God.

The six delegates – Danny Jordaan, David Fowler, Jurgen Muller, Julio Avellar, Wolfgang Heimlich and their Chilean leader Harold Mayne-Nicholls – were greeted by Gibson and Quinn.

For more than half-an-hour, they were locked in the hotel while the two chairman treated them to a private presentation about the bid.

After emerging back into the sunshine, Quinn took the driving seat of the front buggy with Dave Parnaby, head of Middlesbrough’s academy, to see the rest of Boro’s training venue.

Teenagers from Parnaby’s under-14 and under-16 teams and their opponents from Darlington provided the backdrop.

The delegation’s tour continued through the indoor football school, gymnasium, changing rooms, media facilities, sports science complex and restaurants.

Middlesbrough’s training complex, as well as their Riverside Stadium, and Darlington’s Northern Echo Arena, would be bases for World Cup finals nations.

Today, attention will shift northwards as the team are taken to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light and Newcastle United’s St James’ Park – both among the 12 candidate host cities.

Were England to be successful, it has been estimated that it could bring £200m into the regional economy and provide thousands of jobs.

Quinn said: “Most people will look at the inward investment that would arise if the World Cup was coming to our region.

“It will lighten up an opportunity for our region that nothing else will.

“For our young people, it is a great opportunity to have more hope for the future and to see things happening around them that are positive and vibrant.

“It is very important for the future of our cities that there is pride here and a belief that this region is going places.”

Gibson said: “If England win the bid, the North-East cannot be overlooked. The amount of investment that the three clubs (Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle) have made in their own infrastructure we deserve to be major players in that.

“I think we would be worthy winners and I expect us to win.”