As nations around the world are fighting for chances to compete in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the possible venues for the 2018 and 2022 competitions has quietly been reduced.

On Tuesday, Mexico removed itself from consideration to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups. Mexico had hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cups.

Mexico was one of the 11 formal expressions of interest to bid received by FIFA in February, joining Australia, a combined bid between Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Qatar, Russia, a combined bid between Spain and Portugal, South Korea and the USA.

Qatar and South Korea are only bidding for the 2022 World Cup, while the other eight bids are for either 2018 or 2022.

This will be the first site selection since the suspension of the continental rotation that awarded the World Cup to each confederation in turn. However, no nation may bid if their continental conference has hosted either of the previous two World Cups.

The European bids are clear favorites for the 2018 World Cup. South Africa hosting and 2010 and Brazil in 2014 marks the first time since World Cup started in 1930 that two consecutive tournaments have been held outside of Europe.

The longest stretch for the World Cup to remain outside Europe was from 1938, when France hosted, until 1954 when it returned to Switzerland. However, due to the War, both the 1942 and 1946 competitions were canceled. The 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil.

Europe last hosted the World Cup in 2006 when Germany played host. Asia’s last World Cup was in Korea in 2002, while North America’s last edition was 1994 in the United States.