LONDON: David Ginola, ex-France star making a certainly short-life bid for the FIFA presidency, is proposing playing the men’s and women’s World Cups simultaneously in the same country.

The need for a host nation to come up with even more stadia and associated infrastructure at even greater cost and the likely loss of visibility of the women’s tournament would be a small price to pay.

The tournaments are currently hosted by different countries in different years but the 47-year-old Frenchman wants “one global spectacular” that he believes will take the World Cup and women’s football “to new heights”.

The former Tottenham winger is being paid £250,000 by a bookmaker to challenge Sepp Blatter who wants a fifth term at the head of the world football federation. Ginola would need the support of five football associations and must show active involvement in football for two of the past five years.

In an interview with BBC Radio, he said: “We’re talking about equality because we want women to be treated as well as the men.

“We want the women’s World Cup to be organised and played right after the men’s World Cup.

“For example, it would have been in Brazil using the structure of the men’s World Cup. It would be interesting to see how we can set this up.”

The 2015 Women’s World Cup kicks off in Canada on June 6.

Ginola said he was also keen to “restore trust among people towards FIFA.”

The deadline for nominations in January 29 for an election to be held at FIFA Congress on May 29 in Zurich. Other declared candidates are FIFA’s Asian vice-president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan and former FIFA official Jerome Champagne.

############