So, who can bid for the 2018 World Cup?

The short answer that FIFA is now peddling? Everyone

The actual answer? Only the Europeans.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter invited controversy last week by claiming that the 2018 World Cup may be limited to Europe. As he put it, "Only a European candidate will be evaluated for the 2018 World Cup. It's still not decided, but it's an idea to help facilitate the work of FIFA and its executive committee."

For those of you who are new to FIFA, "to help facilitate the work of FIFA and its executive committee" actually means to make Sepp Blatter's job easier, and that he would rather dispense with the b.s. right now, as everyone knows the 2018 World Cup with be in Europe anyways. Naturally, however, such an affront to the supposed open-application process for the World Cup met with angry responses world wide, and Blatter has since backtracked.

This leaves the US in a position to be spending millions of dollars to bid for two World Cup tournaments simultaneously, one of which they will almost assuredly not get. And it leaves the United States competing for 2022 against what is at the moment a disastrous runaway train of an Australian bid, and a surprisingly shrewd and well-coordinated Qatari campaign. Game on!