Obama Lobbying for U.S. to Play Host for Soccer World Cup

By Hans Nichols

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will be lobbying the head of soccer’s international governing body today to bring the World Cup to the U.S.

The president also will get a personal invitation from Sepp Blatter, head of world governing body FIFA, to attend next year’s tournament in South Africa, a trip in which Obama has expressed interest.

“We’ll use the opportunity of the meeting to advocate for the United States to host the World Cup in either 2018, or 2022,” Josh Earnest, deputy White House press secretary, said of this afternoon’s discussion between Obama and Blatter.

The international tournament is held every four years. The host for the 2014 World Cup will be Brazil. Blatter said in an interview yesterday that he expects a “big fight” over the chance to host the championship.

At last month’s G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, Obama said it was his “goal” to travel to South Africa next June to attend the World Cup.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that no final decision has been made. He suggested that many of the president’s senior staff want him to make the trip.

“Scheduling has warned me against accepting unilaterally invitations to visit South Africa,” Gibbs said. “I don’t know if we’ll have any announcements out of that meeting.”

Fonte: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=amSIiXAydsOM