If only Sir Alex Ferguson were an actor in the unfolding drama of England’s faltering bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals, we’d know straight away whom to blame for the mess: the referee.
Instead, we must look elsewhere to explain why England’s campaign is failing to sizzle. Partly it is because it is mired in complacency, and partly because its execution has been clumsy. The bid is handicapped both by a lack of winning personalities to pursue it with passion, and also by a lack of funds: the Government has failed to use its chequebook generously enough to ensure that the bid beguiles the 24 Fifa members who will decide next year whether to hand the prize to England.
Ronald Reagan used to joke that a government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it. Britain’s bid for the 2018 World Cup is all but stationary and so far all that the Government has contributed towards getting it moving again — having initially pledged to chip in £5 million — is a £2.5 million loan. Given that the 2018 World Cup could prove to be the richest in history, generating more than £3.2 billion in revenues for the host nation, £2.5 million is pin money. Many employees of bailed-out banks will be taking home more in their year-end bonuses.
Nor has the Government put much political clout behind the bid. Perhaps if Everton-supporting Andy Burnham were still at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the bid team would get a more sympathetic ear in Westminster. His successor, Ben Bradshaw, might not be first choice to join your team in a football-themed pub quiz.
More troubling still is the simmering disquiet over the stewardship of Lord Triesman, who works only two days a week (for a pay cheque of £100,000) as the bid’s chairman. It is not just that Triesman is widely thought smug and aloof, and lacking the sort of charm that might woo Fifa’s voters into endorsing England’s bid. It is that this part-time bid boss has been nowhere near energetic enough in jetting around the world enthusing Fifa’s bigwigs.
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Fifa’s vice-chairman Jack Warner dismissed England’s bid leadership recently as “lightweight”. He added that he was astonished that England was not milking more assiduously the profile of such icons as David Beckham to promote its bid. Worse, where Lord Triesman has sought to woo, it has been so cack-handed that it has backfired embarrassingly. Warner said last week that he was returning the Mulberry handbag he thought had been given as a birthday gift to his wife (it turned out it was one of 24 handed to Fifa partners last month) because it had become a “symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment for me and my family”. Triesman’s talents for diplomacy have been equally elusive in his prickly dealings with the Premier League, whose financial arithmetic he mocks, but on whose spectacular stadiums his 2018 bid relies.
Some are suggesting that the bid has reached a similar low point in its cycle to the one plumbed by Barbara Cassani when she resigned as chairman of London’s 2012 Olympic bid. Having acknowledged that she lacked the lobbying skills required for the job, she made way for Sebastian Coe. Unfortunately, football lacks a Lord Coe substitute warming up on the touchlines.
But if Lord Triesman is to continue to spearhead England’s bid, he must inject England’s campaign with a winning theme. England faces a rival in Russia that has never hosted the World Cup and has the cash and ambition to do so. After a year of false starts, he cannot afford to squander the 13 months he has left to win over Fifa’s voters. He could start by packing his suitcase and heading for the airport. Or else the call may grow deafening for him to just pack his bags for good.