The UK government has ruled out using London's Olympic stadium in England's bid for the 2018 World Cup. Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said that plans to downsize the stadium from 80,000 to 25,000 seats after the Olympics would go ahead, ruling it out of the World Cup. Jowell added there was no budget to maintain a bigger stadium.

"We have been very clear in our commitments to the IOC in our legacy use which will be as a grand prix athletics stadium," said Jowell.