The hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be announced today. Inas Mazhar reports Five months after the conclusion of the World Cup in South Africa, the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host nations will be announced today. Some of the bidding nations made their presentations Wednesday afternoon at the so- called Home of FIFA in Zurich. The nations displayed their presentations according to a draw held by the executive committee last month. Australia was first, followed by South Korea, the US and Japan. Today, Belgium/Netherlands will give their presentation early in the morning, followed by Spain/Portugal, England and Russia. By noon all bidding nations for the two editions would have given their presentations. Each presentation is expected to last 30 minutes. All presentations will be broadcast live on FIFA.com and at the conference hall "Messe Zurich". The voting process will take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich while the announcement will be made at Messe Zurich. Last month and during the last meeting of the executive committee meeting, the members chaired by FIFA President Joseph Blatter approved the voting process to determine the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The 2018 vote will take place first, then the 2022. The vote will be by secret ballot and all eligible members of the FIFA Executive Committee can vote in both ballots. To win the right to host the competition, a bidder must obtain an absolute majority (50% + 1) of the votes of the FIFA Executive Committee members present. In the event of a tie when only two bidders remain, Blatter will have the casting vote. For any voting round in which an absolute majority is not achieved, the bidder with the lowest number of votes will not progress to the next round. If there is a tie for the lowest number of votes in any round, an intermediate voting round will be conducted to determine which of the tied bidders does not progress. When the final decision on the host has been taken, the result will be put in two envelopes and taken by the notary to the Messe Zurich where they will be handed over to the FIFA president for the announcements. As part of the bidding process, FIFA had requested each bidder to provide information on infrastructure, legal conditions and operational and legacy concepts for the organisation of a FIFA World Cup. FIFA had also launched the Bid Evaluation Report which evaluated the information provided in the bidding documents of the nations together with the remarks from the visits of the inspection committee during the past year to the bidding nations. The report indicates the extent to which the requirements have been fulfilled, and identifies potential gaps and risks with respect to FIFA's requirements for hosting a FIFA World Cup. According to Harold Mayne- Nicholls, chairman of the FIFA Evaluation Group for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, the report is based on an unbiased assessment, taking into account FIFA's experience of hosting and staging previous editions of the World Cup, the information, proposals and statements provided by the bidder and the information gathered during the on-site inspection tour by means of sample assessment of the venues and facilities. Brazil will host the 2014 World Cup.
