Belgian and Netherlands to bid for 2018 and 2022 World Cups

The Netherlands and Belgium, who are bidding for a joint hosting of the 2018 World Cup, will also be candidates to organise the 2022 event, the Dutch football federation said on Saturday.

The decision came after world football's governing body FIFA said at their Congress in Tokyo that they would allow those bidding for the 2018 World Cup to also try and go for the 2022 tournament too provided they were from a different continent than the 2018 winners.

FIFA also announced it would make a decision on the hosts for both tournaments in December 2010.

A Dutch federation spokesman told Dutch agency KNVB: “We had already foreseen this opportunity. If we possibly do not make it in 2018, we would still have a chance the next time.”