Sunderland AFC and Sunderland City Council have worked tirelessly over the last 12 months preparing what Club and city officials feel is truly compelling bid and SAFC Chairman Niall Quinn is now calling on the whole country to help turn England's World Cup dreams into reality.

Quinn said: "I'm confident that England 2018 will prepare a spectacular bid for FIFA and after the hard word, passion and determination show by our bid team and the people of our region, I sincerely hope that Sunderland is a part of that bid.

"Now is the time for everyone across the country to pull together and show the rest of the world what we can do. The next few months will be crucial in terms of the national bid; we must show unity and strength and demonstrate to FIFA why England is the natural choice as World Cup hosts for 2018."

He continued: "If the passion and enthusiasm our city and the North East region as a whole has shown is replicated across the whole country then I have no doubt that England can deliver.

England 2018 Chief Executive Andy Anson said: "With the range of options we've now got available to us because of the work cities have done we can come up with a fantastically credible option with which no other bidding nation can compete

The successful Host Cities will be announced on December 16th, with a further 12 month wait to find out if England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup has met with FIFA's approval.