Major backing for Plymouth's World Cup bid

THE operators of the giant O2 arena in London put their weight behind Plymouth's final pitch to be a 2018 World Cup host city.

A high-powered team from Plymouth put the city's final case to be part of the England 2018 bid late yesterday.

Bid director Keith Todd, executive director at Argyle, said they were joined by a representative of AEG, which operates the O2 arena, for the meeting in London with the England 2018 bid selection panel. He declined to name the AEG executive.

Mr Todd said last week that he had been in talks with AEG about bringing crowd-pulling events to Plymouth.

During yesterday's questioning they were keen to impress on the panel that Argyle's planned 46,000-seat stadium would not end up as a white elephant.

"I think they got the impact of the design of the stadium, and most importantly they got the point that the stadium is about multi-sport and entertainment use after the World Cup. It's not just about Argyle's 23 home games a season," Mr Todd said.

The eight-strong Plymouth team gave a 15-minute presentation before they were grilled for 45 minutes by Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney; Andy Anson, chief executive of England 2018; and Simon Johnson, chief operating officer of England 2018.

The 15 cities bidding to host World Cup matches were to wait until 3pm today to find out whether they had been chosen. England will have to wait until December next year for FIFA to decide where to stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.

"It was a thoroughly rigorous questioning," Mr Todd said. "I think we gave very comprehensive answers.

"The questions were all things which were in a sense predictable.

"They asked us how we would get international players to the area. The answer was that we would fly as many as possible to Newquay and Exeter.

"We know there are a number of new five-star hotels coming to the region."

Council leader Vivien Pengelly, speaking in Plymouth, said: "We all have our fingers crossed. We still think we're the best city.

"Kriss Akabusi, the athlete, was guest speaker at the opening of the new Wood View Learning Community in Whitleigh this month. I joked with him: 'When you go back to Milton Keynes, you are going to tell them they have no chance of winning."

Cllr Glenn Jordan, the city's Cabinet member for sport and leisure, said: "The England bid will be stronger with us in it." He said the Plymouth bid should appeal to FIFA because of the massive legacy the tournament would leave in the city.

Plymouth's 2018 World Cup bid promotional video.

Plymouth Argyle World Cup bid promotional video with Helen Chamberlain.

Argyle press conference: Plymouth bid to host World Cup. Filmed August 21. 2009.