2018 World Cup heading for Europe as USA withdraws bid

That decision, in turn, means that England will no longer stake a claim for the 2022 event, instead focusing all their attentions on the tournament in eight years' time.

The US had been the last non-European bidders remaining in the race for 2018 following Australia's withdrawal in June, and remained in contention for both 2018 and 2022.

Yesterday's decision leaves England's as one of four European bids for 2018, up against Russia and joint bids by Belgium/Holland and Spain/Portugal.

With FIFA statutes preventing two successive World Cups being held in the same continent, the race for the 2022 tournament will now be between Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and the USA.

USA bid committee executive director David Downs said two months ago: "At this point, no-one has offered us a compelling enough reason to drop out of the running for 2018."

But the chairman of the committee, Sunil Gulati, admitted yesterday: "For some time we have been in conversations with FIFA and UEFA about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process, an option we have made reference to many times.

"We are confident this move is in the best interests of the USA bid.

"We wanted to make this announcement now - still 48 days before the final decision - in order to make our intentions clear during the last part of our campaign.

"This also enables FIFA to finalise the selection procedures during its upcoming scheduled executive committee meeting."

That meeting will take place in Zurich on 28 and 29 October.