The England bid team released its final list of suggested venues yesterday that would be slimmed down from 17 to 12 by FIFA should the bid be successful.
The list includes three other London venues outside the Olympic Stadium - Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur's planned new White Hart Lane, and Wembley Stadium.
Other venues across the country are new stadiums in Bristol, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and south-coast city Plymouth, and existing facilities in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Sunderland. Three cities missed out as the bid team whittled the list down to the final 17 - Derby, Leicester and Hull.
UK newspaper The Guardian reported that Lord Mawhinney, the Football League chairman who oversaw the selection of the cities, said: "We were looking for a mix. We have some world-famous stadiums and the world wouldn't have understood if we had missed those out," said Mawhinney, who chaired a seven-month process that culminated this week in three days of final presentations. "But we thought we should have a sprinkling of tomorrow as well."
