Pride Park Officially Submitted For World Cup Bid

Derby (as a city) has officially signalled it's intentions to bring the World Cup Finals to Pride Park, with it confirmed that an application for Derby to be a host city has been made.

When England's bid to stage the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 was launched in May representatives from Derby, as a football club and a city, attended this and now representatives from the Football Association will visit the city later this month (20 July) to assess the potential of the city.

Derby, along with Birmingham, Bristol, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle and Gateshead, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Sunderland, make up the 15 cities that have confirmed an interest in staging the World Cup and a final list of 12 venues will be decided upon in December this year.

10 of the stadiums used to host World Cup matches must have a minimum capacity of 40,000 and at the moment Pride Park falls short of this at 33,000, however this capacity could be increase even if it was only on a temporary basis.

England's complete list of venues, and World Cup bid, will be presented to FIFA in May 2010 with a final decision on who will stage the these World Cup Finals being made in December 2010 and if England's bid is successful, and if Derby is selected as a city, then Pride Park will witness World Cup football in 2018 or 2022!

Two from Derby, Leicester and Nottingham will miss out but can Derby prove to be the successful applicant?

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