The FA are bidding to bring the 2018 world cup finals to England and Peter Storrie has told The News how he wants Pompey’s proposed new state of the art stadium to stage some games: ‘At the moment there is a lot that needs clarifying but we will be asking the question.
‘We will have a chat with the FA to see what criteria and minimum capacity they are looking for from prospective football grounds.
‘As I understand it, they are going to need 10 stadiums and quite clearly we will want to be part of that. The Horsea Island ground would be perfect.
‘There are a lot of people feeling confident England can get the 2018 World Cup but the formal application is not for a long while yet.
‘Until that goes in, it’s a bit of a guess situation what the criteria for the grounds is going
to be.
‘It’s no good saying it’s going to be 40,000 and it turns out to be 50,000. We just have to wait for a while to see what is going to happen.
‘But if the FA are going to have a World Cup venue in the south we will definitely be putting ourselves forward’.
Supposing that the new ground is completed by 2011 as planned – and I have faith this will finally happen after so many previous disappointments – then we would have to compete with other more established clubs but Storrie believes we could do it.
He has also revealed how Pompey will be making moves to have an England U21 international staged at Fortress Fratton at some point in the future – now that some improvements have been made to the ground it should be suitable for such an event.
I know all this is all hypothetical, but just to hear the thoughts that Pompey could stage, or at least will be looking to stage a world cup match is amazing and further indication of just how far we are hoping to go as a club and how serious we are.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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