Football fans worldwide are better off if FIFA, football's world governing body, decides to host the World Cup 2018 in Belgium and The Netherlands. This is the conclusion from a study conducted by Investment Consulting Associates, specialist in location and site selection services, in cooperation with Innovata llc, a leading source of airline flight schedules data, and the University of St. Gallen, a leading European business university.

With only few days left until the decisive vote of FIFA's Executive Committee on December 2, England, Russia, and joint bids by Belgium/the Netherlands and Spain/Portugal, remain as candidates to host the World Cup 2018. One of the key decisive criteria in the vote will be accessibility and ease of travel for football fans arriving from around the globe. The Accessibility Index shows that traveling fans will have the Belgian-Dutch bid (32.3) down as favorites to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup tournament, followed closely by the England bid (30.5). In terms of transportation and ease of travel, the Spanish-Portuguese (11.5) and Russian bids (1.1) are lagging well behind the two frontrunners.

Millions of Football fans, as well as tens of thousands of journalists, sponsors, and supporting staff will travel to the World Cup 2018. Adding up all the estimated numbers, about four million World Cup visitors would stand to benefit if football's world governing body FIFA selects the Belgian-Dutch bid to host the World Cup 2018 tournament.

Following recent coverage of FIFA's vote to decide the World Cup 2018 hosts, calls have been made to move away from subjective opinions, tactical voting, and political alliances influencing the decision-making process. This study aims to inspire this debate and contribute to the development of an increasingly transparent and fact based location decision.

The Accessibility Index accounts for the ease of traveling by air to the bidding host countries and arriving in the proposed host cities. To make the Accessibility Index as accurate as possible, the study incorporates air transport frequencies to international airports in the bidding countries and travel distances between international airports and the proposed host cities. The volume of incoming flights to the bidding countries has been weighted by the likelihood of countries participating in the 2018 World Cup tournament, employing two independent estimation procedures to determine the likely participating countries. For further details on the methodology, please follow this link.