Post by QPR Report on Nov 11, 2009 8:23:01 GMT
Times November 11, 2009
Lord Coe warns over faltering World Cup bid
Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent; Kevin Eason, Sports News Correspondent
Lord Coe has warned that the battle for votes in England’s fight to host the 2018 World Cup is in severe danger of being lost.
A source close to the campaign told The Times that Coe has held emergency talks with Lord Triesman, the bid chairman, as concerns grow among several board members that their hopes are faltering under the latter’s leadership.
England remains the bookmakers’ favourite to stage the tournament, but faces stiff opposition from Russia and a joint Spain-Portugal bid.
Coe, the double Olympic gold medal-winner, was appointed by the bid team as a non-executive director to lend the political influence that he demonstrated in helping to ensure that London won the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
He is understood to have told Triesman that, no matter what the strengths of the bid in terms of world-class stadiums and a commitment to a strong legacy, it will be lost unless he is capable of demonstrating stronger leadership. Coe was unavailable for comment last night.
Triesman’s position is not thought to be under threat before the next meeting of a divided board, on November 24, but his authority has been challenged, not for the first time, over worries that England is struggling to win the levels of support it requires among the 24 members of Fifa’s executive committee.
Even before a fraught past fortnight, during which the bid has been severely criticised by Jack Warner, one of the executive committee members, Triesman had come under pressure over his inability to devote more than two days a week to the £100,000-a-year role.
Sources at Fifa have told The Times that, with Warner’s influence likely to result in “at least another two votes and probably more like another three or four votes” being lost, England is in danger of losing ground in the race.
Support is growing for Spain and Portugal — particularly if Spain chooses to go solo as the vote in December 2010 draws nearer — and for Russia, whose aggressive bid has been launched with the full support of Dmitry Medvedev, the President, and Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister.
England’s bid is also suffering from a lack of financial muscle, with the Government’s pledge of £5 million in direct funding having been cut to a conditional loan of £2.5 million.
Given that Triesman’s appointment to the Football Association and to the bid team was expected to offer more influence at government level, this has been identified as a personal failure by his critics on the board.
England 2018 did not comment last night, but Triesman told The Times last week he was more than satisfied by the progress he and Andy Anson, the chief executive, had made in lobbying executive committee members He cited the encouraging progress made in the past fortnight in making presentations to Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, and Dr Nicolás Léoz, the president of Conmebol, South America’s governing body, and feels that England is ahead of its principal rivals in the lobbying stakes.
Attempts will be made this week to win the support of Mohamed bin Hammam, another executive committee member, before England’s match against Brazil in Doha on Saturday. The bid team will have a high-profile presence before the 2010 World Cup draw in Cape Town on December 4.
The Times November 10, 2009
The 2018 World Cup bid timeline
January 15, 2009: Fifa asks for bids to be submitted for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Within a month, England becomes the first nation to express interest in hosting the finals, with 2018 identified as the primary target
March 16: The bidding nations are confirmed. Australia, England, Russia, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, plus joint bids from Spain and Portugal and Belgium and the Netherlands are in. South Korea and Qatar bid only for 2022
May 18: FA launches its bid at Wembley, with David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Gordon Brown. The same month, England’s 2018 bid team is “confident” Government will provide a £5 million grant to help to finance the £15 million campaign
July 9: Sixteen venues — Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Gateshead, Sunderland, Bristol, Nottingham, Derby, Hull, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Portsmouth, London and Sheffield — enter bids to be hosts
October 7: Jack Warner, a Fifa vice-president, attacks England bid as “lightweight”. The same month the bid team was forced to defend sending £230 Mulberry handbags as gifts to the wives and partners of the Fifa executive committee
November 5: Warner returns his wife’s handbag to the FA, saying it had become a “symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment”. The next day, Danny Jordaan, South Africa’s 2010 World Cup chief, warns England against “complacency”
May 14, 2010: Completed bid books, detailing stadiums, transport, infrastructure and security, as well as government backing, to be filed with Fifa. To be followed in June and July by Fifa executive visits to bid nations for inspection
December 2010: Final decision to be made by 24-man Fifa executive committee as to which host nations will be chosen for both 2018 and 2022. Exact date for decision day and the voting procedures still to be confirmed by Fifa
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article6911638.ece
From The Times November 11, 2009
Rivals countries who could grab 2018 World Cup from England
Spain and Portugal Betting: 4-1 The main opposition. Highly respected football nations with glorious histories, players and stadiums. But Spain hosted the World Cup in 1982 and Portugal Euro 2004. Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has also been reluctant to sanction joint bids since the experience with Japan and South Korea in 2002. This may convince Spain to go it alone. Either way, England face a challenge. With plans for a renovated Nou Camp in Barcelona boasting a capacity of 106,000 seats and Real Madrid’s magnificent Bernabéu, Spain and Portugal would be a charismatic choice with fans around the world, particularly in South America, while transport links by road, rail and air are good. Games would also fall into the vital European prime-time slots for television.
Top ambassador: Luís Figo, former Real Madrid and Portugal winger, who sits on the bid committee.
Russia 7-2 A dark horse, with Russia making a convincing push to raise the profile of its game. Distances across a vast country would mean grouping matches in five regions, while the nation’s main stadium in Moscow, the Luzhniki, would have to be expanded to meet Fifa’s demands for an 80,000-seat venue for the final. But still a front-runner.
Top ambassador: Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, has given his personal backing.
Australia 10-3 An aggressive campaign using Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, who travelled to Zurich to meet Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, in July, as its figurehead, while the Government is paying the £25 million cost of financing the bid. An outsider with Blatter, who suggested that they aim for 2022, but would be popular with nations in Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Top ambassador: Harry Kewell, former Leeds United and Liverpool winger. Remember him?
Belgium and the Netherlands 33-1 Another joint bid, but a more convincing association that worked for Euro 2000. Lacks an 80,000-capacity stadium for the final, while there are doubts that there are enough large-scale grounds to cope. Largely regarded as an outside bet, without much charisma or excitement and without a cohesive national voice.
Top ambassador: Christian Karembeu, former Middlesbrough midfield player and their special adviser. But he is, er, French.
Japan 33-1 Not regarded as a serious contender, particularly after hosting in 2002 with South Korea. Bid was based on building a 100,000-seat stadium in Tokyo that would have doubled for the 2016 Olympic Games. But Tokyo failed to win the Olympics and chances of a World Cup appear to be sliding into oblivion.
Top ambassador: Astro Boy, Japan’s recently unveiled cartoon mascot. Oh dear.
United States 33-1 A potential fly in the ointment, unless they can be persuaded to target 2022. Judged to have held a hugely successful tournament in 1994, with record profits and attendances. Despite that, and the invasion of David Beckham, the US has not taken football to its national heart.
Top ambassador: not David Beckham.
Indonesia Rank outsider looking to slide into place for 2022, with the intention of staging the first “green” World Cup.
South Korea Back in the hat again after co-hosting 2002 tournament, but looking now to stage 2022 World Cup.
Qatar Wants to stage the first World Cup in the Gulf in 2022.
Words by Kevin Eason
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article6911639.ece
Lord Coe warns over faltering World Cup bid
Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent; Kevin Eason, Sports News Correspondent
Lord Coe has warned that the battle for votes in England’s fight to host the 2018 World Cup is in severe danger of being lost.
A source close to the campaign told The Times that Coe has held emergency talks with Lord Triesman, the bid chairman, as concerns grow among several board members that their hopes are faltering under the latter’s leadership.
England remains the bookmakers’ favourite to stage the tournament, but faces stiff opposition from Russia and a joint Spain-Portugal bid.
Coe, the double Olympic gold medal-winner, was appointed by the bid team as a non-executive director to lend the political influence that he demonstrated in helping to ensure that London won the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
He is understood to have told Triesman that, no matter what the strengths of the bid in terms of world-class stadiums and a commitment to a strong legacy, it will be lost unless he is capable of demonstrating stronger leadership. Coe was unavailable for comment last night.
Triesman’s position is not thought to be under threat before the next meeting of a divided board, on November 24, but his authority has been challenged, not for the first time, over worries that England is struggling to win the levels of support it requires among the 24 members of Fifa’s executive committee.
Even before a fraught past fortnight, during which the bid has been severely criticised by Jack Warner, one of the executive committee members, Triesman had come under pressure over his inability to devote more than two days a week to the £100,000-a-year role.
Sources at Fifa have told The Times that, with Warner’s influence likely to result in “at least another two votes and probably more like another three or four votes” being lost, England is in danger of losing ground in the race.
Support is growing for Spain and Portugal — particularly if Spain chooses to go solo as the vote in December 2010 draws nearer — and for Russia, whose aggressive bid has been launched with the full support of Dmitry Medvedev, the President, and Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister.
England’s bid is also suffering from a lack of financial muscle, with the Government’s pledge of £5 million in direct funding having been cut to a conditional loan of £2.5 million.
Given that Triesman’s appointment to the Football Association and to the bid team was expected to offer more influence at government level, this has been identified as a personal failure by his critics on the board.
England 2018 did not comment last night, but Triesman told The Times last week he was more than satisfied by the progress he and Andy Anson, the chief executive, had made in lobbying executive committee members He cited the encouraging progress made in the past fortnight in making presentations to Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, and Dr Nicolás Léoz, the president of Conmebol, South America’s governing body, and feels that England is ahead of its principal rivals in the lobbying stakes.
Attempts will be made this week to win the support of Mohamed bin Hammam, another executive committee member, before England’s match against Brazil in Doha on Saturday. The bid team will have a high-profile presence before the 2010 World Cup draw in Cape Town on December 4.
The Times November 10, 2009
The 2018 World Cup bid timeline
January 15, 2009: Fifa asks for bids to be submitted for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Within a month, England becomes the first nation to express interest in hosting the finals, with 2018 identified as the primary target
March 16: The bidding nations are confirmed. Australia, England, Russia, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, plus joint bids from Spain and Portugal and Belgium and the Netherlands are in. South Korea and Qatar bid only for 2022
May 18: FA launches its bid at Wembley, with David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Gordon Brown. The same month, England’s 2018 bid team is “confident” Government will provide a £5 million grant to help to finance the £15 million campaign
July 9: Sixteen venues — Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Gateshead, Sunderland, Bristol, Nottingham, Derby, Hull, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Portsmouth, London and Sheffield — enter bids to be hosts
October 7: Jack Warner, a Fifa vice-president, attacks England bid as “lightweight”. The same month the bid team was forced to defend sending £230 Mulberry handbags as gifts to the wives and partners of the Fifa executive committee
November 5: Warner returns his wife’s handbag to the FA, saying it had become a “symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment”. The next day, Danny Jordaan, South Africa’s 2010 World Cup chief, warns England against “complacency”
May 14, 2010: Completed bid books, detailing stadiums, transport, infrastructure and security, as well as government backing, to be filed with Fifa. To be followed in June and July by Fifa executive visits to bid nations for inspection
December 2010: Final decision to be made by 24-man Fifa executive committee as to which host nations will be chosen for both 2018 and 2022. Exact date for decision day and the voting procedures still to be confirmed by Fifa
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article6911638.ece
From The Times November 11, 2009
Rivals countries who could grab 2018 World Cup from England
Spain and Portugal Betting: 4-1 The main opposition. Highly respected football nations with glorious histories, players and stadiums. But Spain hosted the World Cup in 1982 and Portugal Euro 2004. Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has also been reluctant to sanction joint bids since the experience with Japan and South Korea in 2002. This may convince Spain to go it alone. Either way, England face a challenge. With plans for a renovated Nou Camp in Barcelona boasting a capacity of 106,000 seats and Real Madrid’s magnificent Bernabéu, Spain and Portugal would be a charismatic choice with fans around the world, particularly in South America, while transport links by road, rail and air are good. Games would also fall into the vital European prime-time slots for television.
Top ambassador: Luís Figo, former Real Madrid and Portugal winger, who sits on the bid committee.
Russia 7-2 A dark horse, with Russia making a convincing push to raise the profile of its game. Distances across a vast country would mean grouping matches in five regions, while the nation’s main stadium in Moscow, the Luzhniki, would have to be expanded to meet Fifa’s demands for an 80,000-seat venue for the final. But still a front-runner.
Top ambassador: Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, has given his personal backing.
Australia 10-3 An aggressive campaign using Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, who travelled to Zurich to meet Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, in July, as its figurehead, while the Government is paying the £25 million cost of financing the bid. An outsider with Blatter, who suggested that they aim for 2022, but would be popular with nations in Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Top ambassador: Harry Kewell, former Leeds United and Liverpool winger. Remember him?
Belgium and the Netherlands 33-1 Another joint bid, but a more convincing association that worked for Euro 2000. Lacks an 80,000-capacity stadium for the final, while there are doubts that there are enough large-scale grounds to cope. Largely regarded as an outside bet, without much charisma or excitement and without a cohesive national voice.
Top ambassador: Christian Karembeu, former Middlesbrough midfield player and their special adviser. But he is, er, French.
Japan 33-1 Not regarded as a serious contender, particularly after hosting in 2002 with South Korea. Bid was based on building a 100,000-seat stadium in Tokyo that would have doubled for the 2016 Olympic Games. But Tokyo failed to win the Olympics and chances of a World Cup appear to be sliding into oblivion.
Top ambassador: Astro Boy, Japan’s recently unveiled cartoon mascot. Oh dear.
United States 33-1 A potential fly in the ointment, unless they can be persuaded to target 2022. Judged to have held a hugely successful tournament in 1994, with record profits and attendances. Despite that, and the invasion of David Beckham, the US has not taken football to its national heart.
Top ambassador: not David Beckham.
Indonesia Rank outsider looking to slide into place for 2022, with the intention of staging the first “green” World Cup.
South Korea Back in the hat again after co-hosting 2002 tournament, but looking now to stage 2022 World Cup.
Qatar Wants to stage the first World Cup in the Gulf in 2022.
Words by Kevin Eason
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article6911639.ece