Stadium row hits Australia's World Cup bid

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 23:11

AUSTRALIA'S bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 is meeting resistance from the country's most popular football codes, with Australian Rules and rugby league taking issue with the use of key stadiums.

Football Federation Australia's bid to host either of those tournaments requires exclusive access to 12 of Australia's largest stadiums for up to ten weeks.

The Australian Football League, which runs Australian Rules football, and the National Rugby League are unwilling to vacate their main venues for so long during the middle of their seasons.

The AFL said yesterday it was prepared to leave the 100,000- capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground for the World Cup organisers, but it would refuse to relinquish its rights to Etihad Stadium in Melbourne's Docklands district.

The NRL said it is concerned not only at their loss of some stadiums around the country but the major disruption to its schedule.

NRL chief executive David Gallop will meet FFA officials tomorrow, but said under the current proposal it would be impossible to run a rugby league season around the World Cup demands.

"Some of the proposals are not going to be palatable to us and would be very costly to us," Gallop said. "We're not trying to stop the World Cup bid but we are certainly concerned about the impact that it will have on our season, our fans and the financial position of our clubs."

World governing body Fifa requires bidding nations to have 12 venues with a minimum capacity of 40,000. A new stadium being built in Melbourne was initially proposed as the city's second World Cup venue, along with the MCG, but its capacity was capped at 31,000 and temporarily enlarging it would be too expensive. That leaves the 56,000-capacity Etihad Stadium as a second Melbourne venue, but all AFL games in Melbourne are played there or at the MCG. "In order for our season to be able to work and accommodate our stakeholders, we need to start planning and to have a season that runs concurrently with the World Cup," said AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou.

Australia, England, Japan, Russia and the United States, plus joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands are chasing either 2018 or 2022. Indonesia, Qatar and South Korea will concentrate on 2022. Fifa will decided on the hosts next 2 December.