Why is everyone so anal about Americans calling the game soccer? Soccer is a legitimate name for the sport with a long history (it's a British name, not American...most who criticize don't even know this). But this is a ridiculous reason for not having a World Cup in the U.S.

And there are other countries that don't use "football." The Italians call it calcio, yet I don't see anyone saying Italy shouldn't have hosted two World Cups.

@elprincipe , you make sense for the most part but italians don't speak english.

I would like to see Australia and USA get the 2018 and 2022 world cups. I don't think england is capable.

I'd not prefer America to win this. As other stated, it should be a country with a passion for football. As I recall one Dutch journalist who followed the games in America, he called the atmosphere rather timid, dead... none of the locals where really that much into the game.

Compare this to past euro/WC games where whole cities grinded to a halt because of footballparties. Fans everywhere and an awesome atmosphere.

I hope the Benelux get's it. Or England... either one is awesome for parties!

Oh, my European neighbours and their constant complaints about socc..., oops, football and USA. Always good for a laugh. It's funny how you care about a simple word.

No passion for soccer in USA? I bet most of you don't even know (or care) that USA is still one of the most succesful and most important countries when it comes to women's football/soccer. And the male US team isn't nearly as bad as many Europeans and South Americans might think.

You want "real" football passion in the stadiums? We'll get plenty of it in 2010/Sout Africa and 2014/Brazil.

I for one wouldn't mind at all if the 2018 or 2022 world cup goes to USA, but as I said before, I think Canada might have better chances if both countries submit their bids.

As Sepp Blatter already stated (and once I agree with him): If any of the designated hosts fail to organize the tournament (we all know South Africa had severe financial problems and there's still a chance even Brazil might get in trouble), USA will be the best backup country in the world and the only one that could handle a late and quick shift of such a huge event.

Nobody is asaying that the US does bad in football, everyone knows they're very succesful in women's football (they won the gold medal, right?) and in the last two WC they didn't do bad (they had an excellent 2002 WC and were eliminated in a very tight match against the to-be-finalist Germany in quarter-finals, anmd in 2006 they took part in the most difficult group and drew against the to-be-champion Italy in a match they deserved to win). But a team's success has nothing to do with passion (there are countries with bad teams and a lot of passion -I dunno, a lot of Central American and African teams-, and countries with good teams and no passion -Venezuela has improved a lot lately, but the country simply doesn't like football-).

I think that a WC should only be hosted in a country were it would be THE event, and all other activities (like other sports) have to take a backseat against the WC. For example, in the 2006 WC, even if we didn't host the WC, every Argentina match the city was completely paralyzed, every office and school put TVs so everyone could see the matches and nobody worked or studied for the two hours that took the match. The only thing the newspapers were talking was about the WC, and everywhere the only thing people talked was about the WC, as it should be, because the WC is the biggest sport event in the world along with the Olympics, I'm sure that in most participating countries it was the same. Do you think that if another WC would take part in the US, it would be the most important thing happening there, it would be the even that drew the most attention from the newspapers? I think not. That's no "WC atmosphere" for me

Zexen, the world cup will always be THE event for devoted football fans all over the world, no matter where it takes place. I don't understand why some of you think it should "only be hosted by countries with a passion for football".

Do you think football is the No.1 sport in Switzerland and Austria? Actually most Swiss and Austrian people had to be convinced by their own governments to show at least some interest in the tournament. So it's certainly not the most popular sport in these two countries, but still they hosted the EURO last year - and I say: why not?

Is ice hockey big in Germany? No, most people over here are not really interested in this sport at all, yet Germany will host its 6th world championship tournament in 2010.

Hold the event in one of the green countries, the world cup brings along massive profits for the host country. A country that regards it as a B sport does not deserve the money.

Your example of Switzerland/Austria is not true.

I agree with Zexen, there should be passion in the country that organizes the WC. Oh, and Canada wont get the WC on those years, they had the U 20 world cup on 2007, and that makes hard that they have another big football tounament in their country so soon. For example, here in Chile, we had last year the U 20 woman WC and the US won, I saw the final when I was in San Francisco and even though they won nobody seemed to care.

And as zexen said, having a good team has nothing to do, and we south americans think the US is bad because even thpugh they go to every world cup its because their rivals, except for mexico, are really bad, and its easy to get to the WC comparing the Euro qualifiers or the south american ones.

The WC has to be the most important thing happening in the country thats the host, here even thought we didnt go to the last 2 WC we saw all  of the matches, they even gave us time at school to watch some matches, and in 1998 when we went, I was 8 and the country was paralized every time the national team played, we just went to school to see the matches and they painted our faces and we sang and played football all day, you could really see the impact. And in 1962 when we where the hosts that made Television be massive for the first time in our country.

 Thats interesting, I didnt know we had so much players