Press releases

Birmingham’s bid to be a host city for the World Cup 2018 was given a stellar send off today when Leader of Birmingham City Council, Cllr Mike Whitby joined avid football fan, Jasper Carrott, and football legend, Cyrille Regis, to hand over the official bid document  to the city’s official delegation – children from Hodge Hill School.

A football team sized delegation of 11 football mad pupils from the school has been chosen to represent the city at the official handover of the Bid document to the FA at Wembley on Thursday 26th November 2009 at 9.15pm.  Sporting ‘Back the Birmingham Bid’ kit and England 2018 scarves, the youngsters will be boarding a coach at 6.00am on Thursday together with other members of the city’s official delegation including representatives from Birmingham City Council, Marketing Birmingham, NEC and the city’s football clubs. At Wembley, a giant 2metre ‘Back the Birmingham’ football kindly supplied by local company, Blown Away, will provide an impactful welcome to the Birmingham delegation who will be facing competition from the other English cities vying to be selected as host city for the official England World Cup 2018 Bid  (www.england2018bid.com).

Joining the delegation on Thursday will be local businessman Simon Topman of Acme Whistles who will be taking an original AcmeThunderer whistle made in Birmingham for the 1966 World Cup (one of 20 used by the World Cup referees). To mark the 2018 Bid, Acme Whistles have made commemorative versions of the whistle with the Back the Birmingham logo as part of the official handover to the FA .

Cllr Mike Whitby said “The children will be the perfect ambassadors for Birmingham on Thursday. Birmingham’s passion for football goes across all ages and cultures from school playing fields to amateur clubs and professional stadia. These youngsters represent the future of football in the city and we hope that they will remember this moment for the rest of their lives.  Legendary football player, Cyrille Regis, whose career has included several Midlands clubs including Coventry City and West Bromwich Albion said, “ Staging a world cup in Birmingham will leave a fantastic legacy for future generations”  and comedian Jasper Carrott, a lifelong Blues fan and passionate supporter of Birmingham’s bid said, “ It goes without saying that Birmingham, as centre of the universe, should be chosen by the FA to be a host city”.

Birmingham has been working on its application to the FA for the last five months putting together a comprehensive proposal that outlines its facilities and plans for the World Cup 2018.  Its bid is built on a strong partnership with Aston Villa FC, using Villa Park as the stadium venue and the city's other Football Clubs - Blues and West Bromwich Albion - providing training grounds and camps. There would also be four team base camps in the region where National teams would stay for the duration of the tournament. The NEC would become the site of a National Fan Park and there would be another Local Fan Park at Cannon Hill Park.  The city’s iconic buildings and venues would also be used for other major elements of the competition such as the official Tournament Draw and there would be a host of ‘live’ sites from to watch matches, whilst the city would be festooned with banners, flags and posters to welcome the national teams and visitors.

Cllr Mike Whitby added: “Birmingham is an ideal host city. We’ve got everything, the transport infrastructure, the facilities, the expertise and of course a huge passion for sport. Such is our cultural diversity that we can guarantee a warm welcome for any teams based in Birmingham and, very likely, a home crowd for every game. Hosting the World Cup would be a tremendous achievement for the city, enabling us to showcase our ability to stage international sporting events on a grand scale and involving everyone in the community in some way. We are grateful for all of the support we have received from stakeholders, businesses and the public and hope that the FA’s decision will acknowledge Birmingham’s passion for staging World Cup football.”

With public support for the Bid counting as one of the factors that the FA considers when deciding on applicant cities will go forward, Birmingham has generated a far-reaching hearts and minds campaign that has involved  celebrities, professional and amateur football players and footie fans from all over the region. Traditional and digital elements of the campaign encouraged people to vote for the city through the official England website and helped to build a 2000 strong Facebook group and hundreds of people uploading kicks in support of the campaign at the official website www.backthebirminghambid.com