Gary Lineker has suggested holding the 2018 World Cup finals in England would see a return to more attacking games.

Gary Lineker has suggested holding the 2018 World Cup finals in England could see a return to more attacking games.

This year's tournament in South Africa was notable for a defensive approach in games, particularly in the opening matches, a teams sought to avoid defeat rather than win matches.

Lineker is an ambassador for England's bid to host the 2018 finals, a tournament Fifa are keen to host in Europe. They are up against Russia as well as joint bids from Holland/Belgium and Portugal/Spain.

Lineker suggested the passion of English crowds would encourage players to attack more, resulting in more entertaining games.

"I think we would have a really good tournament in this country because of the passion we evoke from the stands and that can sometimes help the flow and the attacking nature of football," he said

"That's important because the last couple of World Cups at times have been a little bit on the negative side. These are all issues that I think Fifa will have to think about.

"The 2006 World in Germany Cup was a great party atmosphere and I'm sure it would be a similar feeling in England. We would be determined to make it a real festival of football.

"Economically we are a very viable bid. After a couple of World Cups in countries where they have massive infrastructure issues it would be nice maybe to have a safe pair of hands in 2018 and England would be that."

Lineker was speaking at the Leaders in Football conference in London.