Washington  - The United States is bidding for the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, hoping to raise the profile of football in a country that still has many other sporting priorities, the US Soccer Federation announced Monday.

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati said he hoped a second World Cup in the United States would "finish the job" that began with the popular 1994 tournament, which helped launch a professional football league in the country.

For the first time, football's governing body FIFA will name the hosting countries for two World Cup finals simultaneously, the reason being that the organization wants to give hosts more time to prepare.

The US will be competing with more than a dozen others for the tournament. Canada, Mexico, Portugal/Spain, England, the Netherlands/Belgium, Russia, Qatar, Indonesia, Japan and Australia have all applied or made their interest known.

Football has become one of the top participatory sports among school-age children in the US, but among adults it still lags behind more popular sports like baseball, American football and basketball.

The 1994 World Cup "certainly raised the profile of the game in the United States, but in my view it's unfinished business," Gulati told reporters. (dpa)