(CNN) -- The United States is no longer in the running to host soccer's 2018 World Cup after its bid committee decided to withdraw from contention and focus on hosting the 2022 tournament instead.
The USA Bid Committee announced on Friday it had made the decision after "several months of careful deliberation" following meetings with the sport's world ruling body FIFA and Europe's controlling organization UEFA.
The withdrawal leaves just four candidates for the 2018 tournament -- all of them from Europe.
England and Russia face competition from dual bids comprised of Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands.
The U.S. will be up against Australia, Japan, South Korea and Qatar as it seeks to host soccer's showpiece event for the second time, having staged it in 1994.
Because the tournament cannot be held on the same continent twice in succession, that means none of the 2018 bids can now target 2022, and vice versa.
"For some time we have been in conversations with FIFA and UEFA about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process, an option we have made reference to many times," bid chairman Sunil Gulati, also the president of U.S. Soccer, said in a statement.
"We are confident this is in the best interests of the USA Bid. We wanted to make the announcement now -- still 48 days before the final decision -- in order to make our intentions clear during the last part of our campaign".
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke welcomed the decision, saying it made sense given the location of the four other 2018 candidates.
CNN
