Gordon Brown announced the Government's support for a British bid for the World Cup finals in 2018 today, saying it was "about time" the tournament returned to the British Isles.

The final decision to bid for the tournament will be taken by the Football Association, but the Chancellor said that the Government was keen for the event to be played in the UK for the first time in half a century.

"We are announcing that we will support the Football Association when and if they make their application," Mr Brown told GMTV. "It’s about time it came back to us. I believe we’ve got a very, very good chance of winning this."

Appearing alongside Geoff Hurst, the hero of England's World Cup win in 1966 who said he was "thrilled to bits" by the prospect of a bid, Mr Brown said 2018 would be the right time for the finals to come back.

"Germany’s got the World Cup next year, it had it in 1974 - it’s about time it came back to us. It’s the right time for it to come back 50 years after we won the World Cup," he said.

"You’ve got great facilities, great interest in sport, people love coming to Britain, we’re becoming a great sporting centre. The World Cup would be the icing on top of the cake."

The Chancellor's enthusiastic support for a World Cup bid is thought to derive from his eagerness to leave a sporting legacy to Britain if, as expected, he succeeds Tony Blair as Prime Minister. Mr Blair's last-minute intervention was said to have been crucial in securing the 2012 Olympics for London.

Mr Brown, a Scot and a fierce supporter of Raith Rovers, said that people across the UK would be keen to bid for the finals but conceded that it would be more likely to be made by England than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The Chancellor's remarks came ahead of the launch of a feasibility study for the tournament, which he will announce later this morning with Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, at a football project for children in the East End of London.

The feasibility study will try and establish the "components and requirements of a successful bid" for the finals and how far England the FA must go to meet them. Officials from the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will report back to Mr Brown and Ms Jowell late next year.

"If we are to win the right to stage the World Cup we will need to demonstrate the same rigour as we did with the Olympics," said Ms Jowell. "We will have to meet the four key tests of affordability, deliverability, legacy and winnability. That’s why this study is so important."

The Olympics is a much more expensive undertaking than the World Cup, which consists of only 32 teams taking part in one sport. England already has enough football stadiums to host the tournament and - barring any delays - the new 90,000-seat Wembley will open next year.

Four European nations have hosted the World Cup since 1966. The finals will be played in South Africa in 2010 and are then expected to go to South America in 2014 before returning to Europe in 2018.

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