Coe welcomes World Cup bid

Lord Coe has welcomed the possibility of an English bid for the 2018 football World Cup, insisting that it does not conflict with preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

Coe was an instrumental figure in winning the Games for London and has since been appointed as the chairman of the capital's organising committee. With the likelihood that England will now pitch for the biggest football competition in the world, there have been worries the 2012 Games may take a back seat.

But Coe has denied there is a conflict of interests and he told Radio Five Live: "I'm entirely happy that we should, as an ambitious sporting nation, as and when we can host sporting events, we should bid for them."

He added: "As I said we want to use the games as a catalyst for other events. There is room for a World Cup and and an Olympic Games."

The Government have already pledged support for an English World Cup bid, giving it the green light after completing a feasibility study but Coe was quick to remind them of the commitment involved in staging the Olympics.

"The organisation for a World Cup is of a wholly different order to a World Cup," he said.

"Sepp Blatter is the president of FIFA and a member of the IOC [the International Olympic Committee] and he will tell what is the more complicated.

"A World Cup has 700 hundred players, seven or eight venues and one sport.

"The Olympics has, in one city, 26 individual world championships, take a short breather, then do a similar thing for the Paralympics."