Benelux countries want World Cup

Feyenoord's stadium in Rotterdam hosted the Euro 2000 final

Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are jointly bidding to host the 2018 World Cup finals.

The Belgians and Dutch hosted the 2000 European Championship together and will face competition from England.

China, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the United States have also expressed an interest in being hosts.

Luxembourg would not host any matches, but would stage a Fifa congress, and unlike the others hosts will not automatically qualify for the finals.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said: "It says everything about the popularity of football and the World Cup that we already have concrete proposals."

606: DEBATE What do you make of the joint bid?

South Africa will host the next finals in 2010, with the draw for the qualifying groups taking place on Sunday week, 25 November.

Brazil stage the tournament four years later and the winning bid for the 2018 tournament will be announced by Fifa in 2011.