By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
June 6 – England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup has rallied strongly quickly following the controversial resignation of chairman Lord Triesman, Barry Bright, the vice-chairman of the Football Association claimed today.
Triesman was forced to step down after he made comments reported in the Mail on Sunday that rival bidders Russia and Spain were colluding to bribe referees at the World Cup in South Africa.
Bright said: “There’s no point making out what happened was something we would have wished for, things were going well with 2018 and suddenly we lose the chairman of our bid.
“But I have been quite impressed in the last week or so with the way we have managed to speak to the vast majority of Executive members at FIFA who will vote and I believe our bid, which is a very good one, is still very much on track and there’s no reason to believe it has been seriously affected by events of the last few weeks.
“While England’s performance in the World Cup, which starts in five day’s time, would, I’m sure, give a little boost to our 2018 bid, it’s not based on that performance, it’s based on infrastructure and stadia and stability in a country coupled to future legacy for the game throughout the world.
“One hopes those that judge us on what is an excellent bid, will judge us solely on that basis.”
Bright, who is the chairman of the FA’s Disciplinary Committee, also admitted in a column published in Kent on Sunday today that they wanted to review whether the next chairman should be independent, as the Government want.
He wrote: “As a Board we will begin the selection process for finding a new chairman, but independency is to be looked at again - we may look into seeing if we can find someone who has a football background in our next appointment, but that might take some time.”
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