According to the BBC, fifteen cities have already been shortlisted as possible venues for the tournament.
They are Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland in the north, Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham in the Midlands, and Bristol, London, Milton Keynes and Portsmouth in the south.
Countries bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup which will be announced in December 2010 are Australia, Belgium-Netherlands (joint bid), England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Portugal-Spain (joint bid), Russia and US with Qatar and South Korea only interested in 2022.