England pull out of bidding for 2022 World Cup

England have officially withdrawn from the race to host the 2022 World Cup finals, the FA's bid team said on Friday.

The announcement followed the news that the United States had pulled out of the running for the 2018 tournament to concentrate on its 2022 bid, meaning it will definitely be staged in Europe.

England are bidding along with Russia and the joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium.

FIFA will choose the hosts for both tournaments at a vote in December.

"It's pure logistics and nothing else," England 2018 spokesman Dan Connolly said.

"Once we knew that the United States were pulling out of the 2018 race we had no alternative but to do likewise for 2022."

Under FIFA rules successive World Cups cannot be staged in the same continent.

"In some ways this makes the vote in December a lot less complicated because it's a straight shootout between European bids for 2018 and Asia and the U.S. for 2022."

When countries from different continents are bidding for the same World Cup there is a greater tendency for political voting.

"Our focus was always chiefly on 2018," he added. "This decision doesn't really change anything."

England are bidding to host the World Cup for the first time since 1966.