...Nigeria to present joint World Cup bid
Nigeria will present a joint bid with several other west African countries to host the 2010 World Cup, sports minister Steven Akiga said on Friday.

"We will bid to stage the World Cup but we will not go it alone. We will host it with some other countries from west Africa," Akiga said.

"The west African sub-region has a good, wonderful football culture thanks to the exploits of countries like Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. That is one of the reasons we are considering this kind of bid."

Akiga also said the successful hosting of the 2002 World Cup by South Korea and Japan has given Nigeria the confidence to go for a joint staging of the competition.

However top officials said Nigeria is counting on Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana and Sierra Leone to be a part of the World Cup finals whose hosting rights have been ceded to Africa for the first time.

Already Nigeria have jointly hosted a major football competition — the 2000 African Nations Cup — with Ghana and also have the experience of staging the All-Africa Games in 1973 and the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1999.

The country will also in October next year play host to the All-Africa Games which is expected to attract over 50 African countries who will compete in 22 sports.

FIFA have asked African countries to formally inform them of their interest in hosting the 2010 World Cup before the end of the year.

South Africa, Egypt and Morocco have already communicated their interest to the world football governing body.