World Cup 2018 and 2022 bids: Fifa’s voting procedure

Fifa’s executive committee will on Thursday vote to decide which nations will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but how does the procedure work and what happens if there is a draw?

Over the next two days each bidding nation will make their final presentations as they attempt to win votes from Fifa’s executive committee for the last time.

The final vote for both the 2018 and 2022 competitions will then take place at around 1500GMT on Thursday with the result to be announced shortly after.

The voting procedure at a glance:

The 2018 vote will take place first, then the 2022 one. The vote will be by secret ballot and all eligible members of the FIFA Executive Committee can vote in both ballots.

To win the right to host the competition, a bidder must obtain an absolute majority (50 per cent + 1) of the votes of the FIFA Executive Committee members present.

In the event of a tie when only two bidders remain, the FIFA President (Sepp Blatter) will have the casting vote.

For any voting round in which an absolute majority is not achieved, the bidder with the lowest number of votes will not progress to the next voting round.

If there is a tie for the lowest number of votes in any round, an intermediate voting round will be conducted to determine which of the tied bidders does not progress.

When the final decision on the host has been taken, the results will be immediately sealed by the KPMG observer and the notary, who will bring it to the “Messezentrum Zurich”. The notary will then hand over the envelopes to the FIFA President for the announcements.

Bidding nations:

2018
England
Russia
Spain and Portugal
Belgium and Holland

2022
Australia
Korea Republic
Qatar
USA
Japan