With the recently concluded 18th ASEAN Summit held in Jakarta Convention Centre on 4-8 May 2011, ASEAN Leaders agreed for a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup. ASEAN member-nation Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam had agreed in a Herculean task to bid for hosting the World Cup.
Football in Southeast Asian region were becoming more and more popular although find it hard to make a mark in the world football scene due to high competency against other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Middle Eastern countries. Asian qualifiers for the World Cup had always been dominated by Korea and Japan and a possibility of hosting (–foul word(s) removed–)ured one ASEAN member nation to qualify for the World Cup.
The World Cup was organized by the International Federation of (–foul word(s) removed–)ociation Football (FIFA). ASEAN member states are listed as FIFA’s member (–foul word(s) removed–)ociations. World Cup is staged every four years and considered as the 2nd most popular sporting event in the world.
With over 600 million population and huge following of football, ASEAN stagings of World Cup will certainly be a welcome development to those who loved football. It is also a matter of pride among ASEAN populations to be a part of the sporting event well-loved by the people.
According to statistics, only one country was able to participate and qualified a World Cup Tournament in 1938. The Indonesian team under the name Dutch East Indies was able to qualify for the 1938 World Cup in France. Indonesian team was eliminated early during the tournament. They did not represent the ASEAN Region only but the entire Asian Continent.
World Cup 2014 will be hosted by Brazil, Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. The hosts for the 2026 and 2030 events have yet to be decided.