Sunderland and other Premier League clubs finish season by backing the England World Cup bid
Premier League Clubs back the bid
Over the weekend, Sunderland AFC joined forces with every other Barclays Premier League club to show support for England’s bid to host the FIFA World CupTM. If England is successful in winning the honour of hosting the tournament in 2018, the Stadium of Light will stage matches and Sunday’s 48,000 crowd provided a taste of the atmosphere that will be generated during a World Cup.
Every Barclays Premier League club helped to promote England’s bid with a series of activities at their last home game of the league season. At each match, players wore branded t-shirts during the warm-up, while stadium messages were broadcast throughout the fixtures with information on how supporters can get behind the campaign. Match day programmes also incorporated a personal message from England boss Fabio Capello.
Sunderland AFC chairman Niall Quinn said: “We have entered a crucial phase of the campaign to bring the FIFA World Cup™ to England in 2018. The final bid will be delivered to FIFA later this month and it’s really important that we continue to demonstrate how much England wants to bring this great event to the country. The huge passion of the Sunderland fans is well known in England and by focusing on it in a World Cup context at the weekend , we hope that such great enthusiasm echoed around the globe and resonated with the decision makers at FIFA.”
The co-ordinated activity of the clubs is being conveyed via the world’s biggest continuous annual global sporting event – the Barclays Premier League. Across nine months of the year, 380 matches are beamed out to over 500 million homes in 211 territories. Last season, an estimated cumulative global audience 2.65 billion watched the 100,000 hours of coverage that was broadcast, so the impact of the clubs’ involvement is potentially enormous.
England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson added: “The Barclays Premier League and its member clubs have been tremendously supportive throughout the season and their collective strength will provide a significant boost to our campaign during the last two weeks. With the coverage of all Barclays Premier League matches transmitted across the world there will be significant visibility for England’s bid and we’re extremely grateful to the Premier League and Sunderland AFC for their support.”
People can show their support for the England 2018/2022 by texting “England” to 62018 or by visiting www.england2018bid.com.