Blatter sounds England bid warning

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Blatter has opened the way for an England bid by revealing FIFA are next week set to scrap rotation of the tournament around the continents.

And Blatter said: "England is the motherland of football and I would welcome the candidate of the FA. But England will not be the only candidates - we have already had talks with China's football and political authorities and they are keen, Australia are always in the running and there are others - USA, Mexico and perhaps Canada."

He added: "In Europe there is Russia and I will have talks with Holland and Belgium next month to discuss about whether a combined candidature is valid or not.

Asked whether England would be given a fair crack of the whip - BBC's Panorama programme this week questioned whether that would be the case, Blatter said FIFA's ethics committee, chaired by Sebastian Coe, would oversee the bidding.

He added: "We will make sure the bidding will be a fair procedure and our chairman of the ethics committee will have a special look at the candidature of 2018."

Blatter travelled to Sheffield after meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, where the 2018 World Cup was also top of the agenda.

The FIFA president added: "I told Gordon Brown I would welcome a candidature but first we have to establish the procedure of the 2018 World Cup. My thoughts are that we shall open the market and make the World Cup available for everybody apart from the last confederation which has just organised it, which means South America cannot bid for 2018."

The Prime Minister told Blatter that the time was right for England to host the World Cup again.

Brown said: "While a bid is a matter for the English FA we have said we are not only willing but very keen to support an England bid for the 2018 World Cup. 2018 would be more than 50 years since we last hosted the World Cup and would be a huge boost to football in our country and would also make for a great sporting decade."