By Andrew Warshaw
November 28 – Britain’s Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt says he has been assured by FIFA voting members that England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup will not be adversely affected by the recent spate of newspaper corruption allegations and a forthcoming television broadcast.
Bid leader Andy Anson recently accused the BBC of being “unpatriotic” for screening a Panorama programme tomorrow, three days before the secret ballot in Zurich.
But Hunt said he has spoken to nearly half of the FIFA delegates – including an unnamed member of the Ethics Committee that banned two FIFA voting officials – and was told England’s rested on the quality of their bid.
“All the FIFA delegates I have spoken to have assured me that is the case,” said Hunt, who was recently part of English bid delegation that flew to Kuala Lumpur to woo FIFA’s Asian bloc.
“I did speak to one member of the FIFA Ethics Committee when I was in Kuala Lumpur and he said to me he recognised the Government had no control over the media in England, nor should it, and he was confident that wouldn’t affect the England 2018 bid.
“We are going into this week very upbeat. I really think we can win this.”
England are competing with Russia and joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium for the right to host the 2018 tournament.
Hunt conceded England were underdogs heading into the vote on December 2 but believes the 22 voting delegates are beginning to realise England’s bid is best for the global game.
“Of course we believe that and I think in their heart of hearts they know that too,” he told BBC Radio’s Sportsweek programme. “
“They know how much England put into the global game.
“It is going to be very close and we have to work for every single vote.
“In technical terms we have the best football infrastructure of any country anywhere in the world, commercially we have the biggest and best Premiership in the world.
“There are more fans globally for Premiership teams than any other country in the world.
“That is why the 2018 World Cup would have a bigger reach than one hosted anywhere else.
“That is the message we are trying to get across.
“We want to win this because we genuinely, passionately believe we can offer the most to the game worldwide.”
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