Beckenbauer backs England for World Cup

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Beckenbauer, a member of the FIFA executive that will decide the hosts for 2018, believes the governing body must end their continental rotation and bring the World Cup back to Europe.

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England are expected to launch an official bid to stage the tournament early next year. The government has already indicated its support and appointed former sports minister Richard Caborn as World Cup ambassador.

And Beckenbauer told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek: "There is no better country in Europe to host the World Cup in 2018. The Premier League at the moment is the best league in Europe and the stadiums are outstanding.

"I think the most important thing is to have an end of the rotation and bring the World Cup back to Europe. And there is no question that for 2018 England is the favourite.

"In my opinion there is only one very serious candidate and it is England. I think there is not really a problem to pick a host of the 2018 World Cup."

Unpredictable FIFA president Sepp Blatter said this week that Europe had no divine right to expect to host the 2018 competition, but his controversial rotation experiment is set to end.

It is expected the governing body will instead approve a format which only precludes the continents which held the previous two World Cup - in the case of 2018, Africa and South America - from bidding again.

It means that as well as competition from the likes of Russia and Italy, England could also expect to encounter strong rivalries from the likes of Australia and China.