Football’s not coming home

The dust hasn’t even had time to settle; the Davids Cameron and Beckham as well as HRH Prince William are making their way back to England defeated. The 2018 World Cup will be played in Russia and the next opportunity for England to host the event will be in 20 years time. Initial reports suggest England, once favourites to stage the event, were eliminated during the first round of voting. To many, the news signals disappointment but perhaps not surprise.

Russia were offered the most lucrative bid; they have the backing of their government, the wealth of their numerous oligarchs together with plans to construct new stadia and update run down transport routes. The concerns over the Russians’ bid centred mainly around the transport of fans across a country as vast as Russia.

The English bid has been sliding down a slippery slope since May this year when Lord Triesman lost his job as chief of the Football Association after being taped accusing Russia and Spain of attempting to bribe referees. Triesman was in charge of the 2018 World Cup bid and his resignation left the bidding team without its spearhead.

BBC Panorama investigations identified corruption within FIFA, the governing body of world football, with the television program naming a number of FIFA members who have accepted bribes in exchange for votes when deciding on which country should host football events. FIFA insisted this would not harm England’s bid. Of course they did. Of course they were lying. That is not to say that England would have won had these allegations not been made, but they certainly damaged the bid.

Surely England, despite their bid self-imploding, could have held off the threat of the joint Dutch-Belgian bid whose selling point was ‘small size’ and ‘2 million bicycles’. It would appear not. So, summer holiday 2018 in Russia anyone? Thought not.