AUSTRALIA'S bid for the 2018 World Cup will have to pass a preliminary elimination contest to whittle down the number of candidates.
There could be as many as 10 bids and FIFA president Sepp Blatter wants to produce a shortlist of the top bids.
The bidding countries would have to provide a number of guarantees about finances, organisation and accommodation in order to make the shortlist.
Blatter, speaking at the Soccerex conference in Johannesburg, said: "If there will be as many candidates as it appears there might be, then we will have to do what the IOC does and have a preliminary elimination and only go with those who have given the right guarantees.
"We are in 2007 and the 2018 World Cup has already started in a race of bidders from interested countries.
"USA, Mexico, Canada, Belgium and Holland who are united, Spain - don't forget them - Russia and of course England.
"Then there are China, Japan and Australia so we may have eight or nine bidders for 2018 and yet we haven't even played 2010."
England's World Cup bid ambassador Richard Caborn, who is to meet FA chief executive Brian Barwick next week to discuss setting up a company to organise the bid, said Blatter's proposals were sensible.
"That is how the IOC do it and I can see the sense of it," he said.
The Asian confederation's president Mohamed Bin Hammam is keen for only one bid to come from their region to maximise their chance of success. Australia have confirmed a bid and China are likely to do so.
"We would have to come to a stage where we have to decide which one has the best chance and advise the other bidders to withdraw for the benefit of the other," he said.
Bin Hammam also insisted he was not worried about England's bid.
"I think we do have the right to organise the 2018 World Cup in Asia again after 2002," he added, referring to the World Cup in Korea and Japan.
"I think Europe has already taken their chance in Germany in 2006 and I would be saying there must be fair competition."
Meanwhile, Blatter played down the significance of the murder of a former Austrian professional footballer on a golf course near Durban on Friday.
The shooting has sparked security fears for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but Blatter said: "You can never avoid certain situations, anywhere in the world.
"I even had my apartment in Zurich robbed while I was away once."
The bidding countries would have to provide a number of guarantees about finances, organisation and accommodation in order to make the shortlist.
Blatter, speaking at the Soccerex conference in Johannesburg, said: "If there will be as many candidates as it appears there might be, then we will have to do what the IOC does and have a preliminary elimination and only go with those who have given the right guarantees.
"We are in 2007 and the 2018 World Cup has already started in a race of bidders from interested countries.
"USA, Mexico, Canada, Belgium and Holland who are united, Spain - don't forget them - Russia and of course England.
"Then there are China, Japan and Australia so we may have eight or nine bidders for 2018 and yet we haven't even played 2010."
England's World Cup bid ambassador Richard Caborn, who is to meet FA chief executive Brian Barwick next week to discuss setting up a company to organise the bid, said Blatter's proposals were sensible.
"That is how the IOC do it and I can see the sense of it," he said.
The Asian confederation's president Mohamed Bin Hammam is keen for only one bid to come from their region to maximise their chance of success. Australia have confirmed a bid and China are likely to do so.
"We would have to come to a stage where we have to decide which one has the best chance and advise the other bidders to withdraw for the benefit of the other," he said.
Bin Hammam also insisted he was not worried about England's bid.
"I think we do have the right to organise the 2018 World Cup in Asia again after 2002," he added, referring to the World Cup in Korea and Japan.
"I think Europe has already taken their chance in Germany in 2006 and I would be saying there must be fair competition."
Meanwhile, Blatter played down the significance of the murder of a former Austrian professional footballer on a golf course near Durban on Friday.
The shooting has sparked security fears for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but Blatter said: "You can never avoid certain situations, anywhere in the world.
"I even had my apartment in Zurich robbed while I was away once."
Copyright (c) Press Association
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