Obama Supports US’ Bid for World Cup
President Barack Obama recently sent a video and a letter to soccer’s governing body, FIFA, in effort to allow the US to host another World Cup.
The president recently sent a video praising Chicago in its bid to hold the 2016 Summer Games. Now he has endorsed the United States’ effort to hold the World Cup of soccer either in 2018 or 2022.
“As a child, I played soccer on a dirt road in Jakarta, and the game brought the children of my neighborhood together,” the president wrote in a letter that was hand-delivered recently to Joseph S. Blatter FIFA. “As a father, I saw that same spirit of unity alive on the fields and sidelines of my own daughters’ soccer games in Chicago,” the president added.
“Soccer is truly the world’s sport, and the World Cup promotes camaraderie and friendly competition across the globe,” Obama added in the letter, a part of which was released to The New York Times by the United States Soccer Federation with permission from the White House.
“That is why this bid is about much more than a game,” he added. “It is about the United States of America inviting the world to gather all across our great country in celebration of our common hopes and dreams.”
The president is hoping to influence FIFA when the decision for 2018 and 2022 is made in December 2010, five months after the next World Cup in South Africa. FIFA has committed to Brazil in 2014, meaning that consecutive World Cups could be held in countries without vast modern infrastructure. Theoretically, this would make FIFA more interested in creature comforts and money in 2018 and 2022.
“The support of the president, who is extraordinarily popular around the world, is a huge plus,” Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Federation, said Monday.
Obama is a powerful force, as was shown recently in Chicago when his video impressed inspectors from the International Olympic Committee who were evaluating that city against Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
Hopefully, Obama and the USSF will be able to persuade Joseph Blatter and FIFA to allow the US to host another World Cup, with the last one being in 1994.
Thanks New York Times!
