The United States, Egypt and South Korea have formally joined the race to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, Associated Press reported. FIFA received the U.S. Soccer Federation's «expression of interest» ahead of the Tuesday deadline, spokesman Nicholas Maingot said. Countries have until 1200 GMT to submit their initial bids. Other nations that have said they would submit proposals include England, Russia and Mexico. Joint bids by Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal have been announced, although FIFA president Sepp Blatter has expressed a preference for single-nation bids. FIFA will decide on hosts for both the 2018 and 2022 tournaments in December 2010. Egypt is the only African country so far in the running. It will likely focus on 2022, since next year's tournament is going to South Africa. The 2014 tournament will be staged in Brazil. South Korea joins its 2002 World Cup co-host Japan, Australia, Indonesia and Qatar and from the Asia-Pacific region. China opted out of bidding for either World Cup finals, state media reported Tuesday. There had been speculation it would seek to build on its hosting of the Beijing Olympics last year.
