World Cup 2022?

According to the Korea Times, Korea has once again bid for an event that it likely won’t get.

Fourteen stadiums in 12 cities have been selected for Korea’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

The bidding committee announced the final venues for the tournaments Thursday and Cheonan and Goyang joined the 10 cities ― Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, Suwon, Jeonju and Jeju ― that hosted World Cup matches in 2002.

Seoul and Incheon would co-organize the quadrennial event in two areas.

The committee received applications from 15 candidates, and evaluated them based on facilities, traffic and lodging, eliminating three ― Pohang, Cheongju and Muan.

The nation, which declared its interest last February, will compete against nine other candidates _ Australia, England, Japan, the United States, Russia, Indonesia and Qatar, along with joint bids from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

With the next two World Cups taking place in Africa and South America, it is widely believed the 2018 tournament will be held in Europe, which is why Korea, along with Indonesia and Qatar are only bidding for the 2022 event.

FIFA will announce the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Dec. 2 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Should Korea, who co-hosted the 2002 contest with Japan, win the right to hold football’s biggest tournament? Incheon Asiade Stadium will host the opening match and the final will be held at the Seoul World Stadium..

The semifinal matches are scheduled to take place in Busan and Daegu.

According to regulations, sites must be able to accommodate crowds of more than 80,000 for the opening and final matches, 60,000 for the penultimate round and 40,000 for the group stage.

The East Asian country has world-class infrastructure and stadiums already in place, and all venues are reachable from Seoul in one hour by plane and within three hours by high-speed trains.

Thanks to its state-of-the-art IT technology, Korea can offer superb broadcast capabilities and the Korean business community is expected to support the bid, as it did the 2002 bid.

The major drawback against the Korean bid is that it has been just 20 years since the nation last held the quadrennial event while other potential bidders have waited much longer.

Korea has the infrastructure, and the underused stadiums, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Korea needs to grow beyond these international events as a way of holding the world’s attention. The Olympics in 88 and the World Cup in 2002 were both successful, but let’s move on and see a country built that has more than just stadiums!