England rivals for World Cup bid are named

England's rivals to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups have been confirmed by FIFA.

Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the USA have all applied to stage the event in either 2018 or 2022 with South Korea and Qatar staking a claim to host the second of those tournaments.

"We are very pleased about the fantastic level of interest in our flagship competition, with all initial bidders confirming their candidature," said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

"The diversity and quality of the contenders will make this a very interesting selection process. This shows the importance of the FIFA World Cup as a truly universal event."

Europe is a strong favourite to host the tournament in 2018 because next year's finals are in South Africa while the 2014 tournament will be in Brazil.

Blatter has said that joint bids are likely to lose out in favour of a strong proposal from a solo host.

The next stage for the applicants is to submit their bidding agreements by 11 December with FIFA deciding on the hosts for both tournaments 12 months later.