City News

9.30am, Friday 14th May 2010,
Aston Villa Football Club, Holte Suite, Trinity Road, Birmingham

England’s official World Cup Bid 2018 will be officially submitted to FIFA™ in Zurich this Friday 14th May 2010 at 0845 am.

As an official candidate host city, Birmingham will be showing its support for the England bid with an event at Villa Park which will unite many of the stakeholders from all over the West Midlands who make up the Birmingham and West Midlands Region Bid. The Birmingham Stakeholder group which includes a selection of prominent backers of the bid including Birmingham City Council Leader, Mike Whitby, together with well known faces from the world of football, will be on hand to take delivery of a ‘lite’ version of the final England Bid.
Joining them will be pupils from Hodge Hill School who delivered Birmingham’s successful bid to the FA in November last year.

With an unprecedented five West Midlands clubs set to go head to head in the Barclays Premier League next season, the region is a thriving as a football hotbed like never before. The event on Friday morning will show how Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City, together with other Midlands clubs such as Walsall and Shrewsbury Town,  will put rivalries to one side in support of England’s World Cup Bid.

A map created for the occasion and available to media will reveal how Birmingham’s bid is indeed a bid for the West Midlands as a whole - from match action at Villa Park to showpiece training grounds at the region’s other stadia and at venues such as Birmingham Alexander Stadium and the University of Warwick in Coventry, not to mention team bases, accommodation, fan parks and event locations.