Wembley day of destiny for Newcastle and Sunderland
Nov 26 2009 by Adam Jupp, The Journal
BIDS to bring the World Cup to the North East will today be handed in at the home of English football.
Delegates from Sunderland and Newcastle Gateshead have travelled to the capital to submit their formal host city applications.
Both cities want to be included in England’s bid to stage either the 2018 or 2022 tournaments.
Officials have spent months producing detailed documents outlining what each area has to offer, including training bases, hotels and fan parks.
Now, the applications are being handed over at the new Wembley stadium during a series of special ceremonies.
The bid team for Sunderland set off on the club’s official team bus at around 4am.
The delegation includes chairman Niall Quinn, striker Kenwyne Jones, chief executive of Sunderland City Council Dave Smith, as well as its leader Coun Paul Watson and club chief executive Steve Walton.
They were joined by five youngsters representing the Black Cats and the other North clubs that will play a part in Sunderland’s bid – Middlesbrough, Darlington, Hartlepool and Carlisle.
Jones, an official England 2018 Ambassador for the FA added: “It is such an honour to be delivering the final 2018 bid presentation and I am really looking forward to visiting Wembley Stadium.
”It would mean so much to the people in the North East to have World Cup football in their region, and I know that the fans would make any match an incredible occasion.”
Quinn added: “The final Sunderland 2018 Host City bid presentation at Wembley Stadium represents the culmination of months of hard work and the support of tens of thousands of people from across the North East, who would love to see World Cup football at the Stadium of Light.
”I would like to thank everyone for their truly wonderful support, including the many businesses that have played a key role in supporting the 2018 bid, such as Nissan, Caterpillar and Gentoo and the sporting institutions that are integral to our proposal and vision of bringing World Cup football to the whole of the region.
“If Sunderland is to be successful, it would be a truly wonderful achievement and I urge everyone across the country, regardless of which cities make it into the final England 2018 proposal, to get behind England’s bid in the coming months and show FIFA exactly what it would mean to host the World Cup here.”
Newcastle Gateshead’s delegation will include a host of Tyneside celebrities, whose identities are not being revealed until later today.
They were given a send-off by Magpies manager Chris Hughton and members of the first team squad at St James’s Park.
All 15 cities bidding to be included in England’s World Cup campaign have been given time slots to hand over their application documents. If either North East city is successful, group games would be played in the region over the course of a month.
It is estimated the region would be given a £58m cash boost, with tens of thousands of visitors expected to travel in to watch their teams.
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