ASEAN SHOULD HOST FIFA WORLD CUP: CHATIKAVANIJ

BANGKOK (25 Oct 2009) – Korn Chatikavanij, the Thai Finance Minister, said that ASEAN countries should band together and put in a concerted bid to host the FIFA World Cup in the future.

Chatikavanij made the statement at the 15th ASEAN summit in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin.

“The leaders of the ten ASEAN countries can discuss the issue informally, because I personally feel that South East Asia can play host to the World Cup.

“Together we have close to 600 million people and where we would rank as the fifth-largest country in the world,” added Chatikavanij.

“South Korea and Japan had played co-hosts to the FIFA World Cup in 2002,so I see no reason why ASEAN cannot do the same. All of the countries involved can get into organising matches.”

ASEAN consist of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Chatikavanij said that he had already forwarded the idea to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The dateline for submitting bids for both the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup had already passed earlier this year.