Soccer News of Tuesday, 18 March 2003

Source: .

Nigeria can't co-host...

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told Nigeria it has no chance of co-hosting the 2010 World Cup along with four other countries, Cameroon, Ghana, Benin and Togo.

"They can just forget about that, it will not work," Blatter said of the bid.

"Nigeria has made a bid but the others are not on the papers. They are not bidders and nobody from the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) has made an approach to FIFA to suggest such an idea.

"Anyway, it would be out of our regulations and we cannot go out of our regulations."

Japan and South Korea successfully co-hosted last summer's World Cup, but Blatter insisted the joint award was a result of "exceptional circumstances" after both made bids and added having two organising committees had brought about many difficulties.

Africa is due to stage the event for the first time in 2010, and Nigeria is facing stiff competition from Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa who were edged out by Germany for the 2006 tournament.