Insider Media Limited

Colin Sexstone, chief executive of Bristol City Football Club, has reacted with disappointment to England’s failure to secure the right to host the 2018 World Cup, but told Insider the decision has no impact on the club’s long-term stadium plans.

The decision was announced yesterday afternoon in Zurich by Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

“Bristol was able to bid to be a World Cup host because of our plans for a new stadium, but you don’t build a stadium for four games,” Sexstone told Insider.

Bristol City’s chief executive added that the economic benefit to Bristol and the wider area from hosting World Cup games would have been substantial, but it wouldn’t have done a great deal for Bristol City’s finances.

“There will be other big events that a new stadium could host, even if nothing quite as big as the World Cup,” he said.

But in Plymouth, which was also among England’s 12 host cities for the World Cup, more was at stake in relation to the bid.

Pymouth Argyle FC was planning to build a new 27,000-seater stadium in order to be one of the host cities, which could then be used by the club to replace Home Park. Douglas Fletcher, chair of the official Plymouth World Cup Bid, said the failure of the bid was "a lost economic opportunity which would be very difficult to re-engineer in the same timescale.”

It was a year ago that Plymouth and Bristol were confirmed as host cities should the country have landed the right to stage the 2018 World Cup. At the time there was huge public optimism that the England World Cup bid would succeed, but in recent months other bids gathered momentum.

Russia has been confirmed as the 2018 World Cup host country, while the 2022 event is to be hosted by Qatar.