Belgium–Netherlands 2018 FIFA World Cup bid Heerenveen and Rotterdam, but both Amsterdam and Rotterdam will provide two stadiums. Eindhoven will function as the 'capital city' of the World Cup. Belgium–Netherlands 2018 FIFA World Cup bid Alain Courtois, a Belgian Member of Parliament, announced in October 2006 that a formal bid would be made on behalf of the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to host either the 2018 FIFA World Cup or 2022 version, but has since decided to concentrate solely on the 2018 version (see 2018 European World Cup bids). In June 2007 the three countries launched their campaign not as a joint
Southern Netherlands until 1867. The King of the Netherlands was Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 1890, when William III was succeeded by his daughter, Wilhelmina of the Netherlands – but Luxembourg still followed the Salic law at the time, which forbade a woman to rule in her own right, so the union of the Dutch and Luxembourger crowns then ended. The northwestern two-thirds of the original Luxembourg remains a province of Belgium. The Spanish Netherlands (Dutch: "Spaanse Nederlanden", Spanish: "Países Bajos españoles") was a portion of the Low Countries controlled by Spain from 1556 to 1714, inherited from the Dukes of Burgundy.