It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming football’s coming home! Okay maybe not just yet… but *fingers crossed*

Yes today it was confirmed that Manchester will be the only city outside London to have more than one stadium put forward in England’s bid to host the World Cup 2018 (or 2022). Impressive for ‘up North’ and well deserved as a city with a rich footballing heritage, fabulous facilities and the infrastructure to support an event of this scale.

So what’s happens next? Well there is still 350 days to go until we find out whether England will be World Cup hosts. Bids will be submitted to FIFA by the 14th of May 2010 – alongside those of Australia, Belgium & Netherlands (joint bid), Japan, Russia, Spain & Portugal (joint bid), USA – as well as Indonesia, South Korea and Qatar for 2022 only.

Local footballing rivals are unlikely to be put aside until decision day however here’s hoping a repeat of 1966 is another step closer.

c/o Johnny Vulkan and pixeljunkie_ licensed under Creative Commons.