Culture Minister praises strength of England 2018 bid
Mon 29th Nov 2010 | Club & Country Competitions
As we enter the final three days until the decision as to who will host the World Cup in 2018/2022, culture minister Jeremy Hunt believes nothing more could have been done to promote England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Lives’ Sportsweek programme, Hunt said; "Could we have made any more effort? I think the answer's no, but that doesn't mean we're going to win,"
"We must keep going until the last moment," he added.
England’s bid team head out to Zurich for the final days of lobbying and will be joined by Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William who hope to make a last minute impression on the FIFA voting committee.
"What we want them to know is that we are most passionate country about football in the world - the week Prince William was engaged, he found time to go to a Blackpool game so that passion comes from top," he said.
"When David Cameron became prime minister in his first 24 hours he called [FIFA president] Sepp Blatter to say how keen we were to win 2018.
"I've spoken to nearly half the FIFA executive committee members, we want them to know how passionate we are that we're successful with 2018,” he continued.
"What we want them to understand is that we're not in any way arrogant and don't think we we're entitled to host it, even through we are the home of football," he stressed.
"We want to win this because we genuinely believe we can offer most to the game worldwide - there are more fans globally for Premier League teams than [for any other league], so an England 2018 World Cup would have a bigger reach than one hosted anywhere else, that's the message we want to get across."
SUBSCRIBE TO THE F.C. BUSINESS RSS FEED
If you have any football business related news stories you’d like to share then please contact us – agourley@fcbusiness.co.uk or ryan@fcbusiness.co.uk
Google
Yahoo
Live
del.icio
DiggRelated Articles
Football Conference Breaks All-Time Attendance Record
Tue 1st May 2012 | Club & Country Competitions
The 2011/12 Blue Square Bet Premier season has comfortably broken the Football Conference’s all-time aggregate attendance record. During the 46-game regular season, 1,122,466 fans attended the...
FA planning Team GB friendlies
Wed 26th Oct 2011 | Club & Country Competitions
The men's and women's teams are competing as GB in the Olympics for the first time since 1972, and the Football Association are understood to be planning a pre-tournament event which would see both...
Pearce and Powell to lead Team GB at Olympics
Thu 20th Oct 2011 | Club & Country Competitions
The FA has appointed Hope Powell and Stuart Pearce as the Head Coaches for Team GB Football teams who will compete at London 2012 Olympic Games. In June the British Olympic Association (BOA) reached...
Tottenham Hotspur continues Team India partnership at The Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup
Thu 28th Jul 2011 | Club & Country Competitions
Tottenham Hotspur has announced a renewed partnership with the Indian National Team at the forthcoming Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup. Tottenham Hotspur’s involvement in the Homeless World Cup is...
