UK Government: 'England ready to host 2022 World Cup'

The UK government has stated that England would be ready to host the 2022 World Cup if it is stripped from Qatar.

The FBI has confirmed that it will investigate the legitimacy of Russia and Qatar's successful World Cup bids as part of their enquiries into alleged corruption at FIFA.

In December 2010, England lost out to Russia for the right to host the 2018 competition, while Qatar were awarded the 2022 edition on the same day.

UK sport minister John Whittingdale says that England has all the facilities needed to run the World Cup.

"If FIFA came forward and asked us to consider hosting it, we have the facilities in this country and of course we did mount a very impressive, if unsuccessful, bid to host the 2018 World Cup," BBC Sport quotes him as saying.

"In terms of the decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, that is obviously something which we are watching, but at the moment that decision stands.

"If it were decided to change that, I think as the chairman of the English FA Greg Dyke observed, if Russia hosts the World Cup in 2018 it does seem very unlikely that another European country would host it in 2022."

Sepp Blatter's resignation as FIFA president on Tuesday has led to calls for the 2022 bidding process to be rerun.