By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
May 16 – Sebastian Coe (pictured) and Sir Keith Mills, the architects of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, are set to adopt a higher profile role in England’s campaign to stage the 2018 World Cup after Lord Triesman was forced to step down as chairman, Coe has exclusively told insideworldfootball.
Coe is due to speak to FIFA President Sepp Blatter tomorrow to try to begin to repair the damage caused by Triesman’s comments, he told insideworldfootball.
Geoff Thompson, the former chairman of the Football Association and England’s representative on the FIFA Executive Committee, is to take over as the new chairman of the World Cup bid.
But it is the expertise that Coe and Sir Keith, who was chief executive of London 2012 during its successful campaign to host the Games, will bring to the bid that will help restore optimism that England’s chances of beating rivals Russia and the joint bids from Holland and Belgium and Spain and Portugal have not been completely killed by Triesman’s unfortunate comments about bribery.
Coe and Sir Keith, who were already members of England’s World Cup 2018 Board, have been involved in negotiations since the news broke of Triesman’s resignation to try to get the bid back on track.
But Coe is convinced that the bid can still be saved.
He told insideworldfootball: “This has been a very unhappy episode.
“But nothing changes.
“We have the best bid, the best fans, the best stadiums.
“The only thing that has changed is that we don’t have the private views of the previous chairman.”
Both Coe and Sir Keith already have excellent football credentials.
Coe is a life long supporter of Chelsea and is a former chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee while Sir Keith is a director of Tottenham Hotspur.
Sir Keith, who made his fortune out of loyalty cards, including British Airways and the Nectar Card, is currently also heading Britain’s bid to win the Americas Cup for the first time in history.
Coe said: “I welcome Geoff Thompson as the new chairman of the Board and we look forward to working together with one goal.”
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