ENGLAND LOOK TO HOST THE WORLD CUP
Just as Tony Blair has the Olympics as his sporting legacy, so Gordon Brown, his probable successor as Prime Minister, is backing a World Cup bid for 2018, so that he, too, will have an event by which he will be remembered.
Whitehall and football sources say that the Chancellor is keen for England to try to stage the tournament — the world’s biggest single sport event — for the first time since 1966.
The vote will be taken in 2012. Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, said yesterday: “We are a long way off. We are going through exactly the same process as we did for the Olympics. We were criticised for it but it was the right way forward. Tessa (Jowell, the Culture Secretary) and I visited quite a number of countries, who had staged or were going to stage the Olympics. We learnt a huge amount then and we came back with the British Olympic Association and we looked at a number of areas and what we should be presenting to Government.”
The vote will be taken in 2012. Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, said yesterday: “We are a long way off. We are going through exactly the same process as we did for the Olympics. We were criticised for it but it was the right way forward. Tessa (Jowell, the Culture Secretary) and I visited quite a number of countries, who had staged or were going to stage the Olympics. We learnt a huge amount then and we came back with the British Olympic Association and we looked at a number of areas and what we should be presenting to Government.”
He said that he was not aware of any imminent decision about a definite bid for the World Cup. “We will look at all the facts,” he said. “It is not an emotive issue. It is calculated. We have learnt by our mistakes, I can assure you, in making bids, whether it is for Picketts Lock (the proposed stadium for the 2005 athletics World Championships) or World Cups, or the building of Wembley or the Dome .”