The Premier League has pitched in to support England’s 2018 World Cup bid, pledging its help in markets across the world. In one of the most significant moves of the 2018 campaign so far, the League has promised to use its marketing muscle and power across the globe to send out the message that England would be great hosts of a World Cup.
Although no cash is changing hands, it is understood that the aid and exposure being offered is worth millions of pounds. The rift between the Premier League and Lord Triesman, chairman of both the Football Association and the bid, was seen as one of the biggest problems hampering England’s chances of winning the 2018 tournament.
But revelations in The Times this week, that Triesman’s leadership was being questioned and that the bid board was hopelessly divided, prompted a rapid reaction with the FA chairman calling an emergency board meeting on Thursday evening. The result was an enhanced role on the board for Sir Dave Richards, the Premier League chairman, and the drafting in of Geoff Thompson, a former FA chairman, now a vice-president on the Fifa executive and seen a key powerbroker in the bid negotiations.
It is thought that Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, was wary of committing resources to the bid as it was clearly being dragged back by in-fighting and intrigue against the FA chairman and is now reckoned by many commentators to have fallen behind both Russia and the joint bid from Spain and Portugal. But Triesman’s reshuffle, announced on Thursday night, which introduced a trimmer, sharper board cut from a dozen people to just seven, is thought to have gone some way to quelling fears about his leadership and introduced a sharper focus on what needs to be done.
The 20 Premier League clubs have now decided they must throw their weight behind the bid. They will offer pitch perimeter advertising slots, branding on club websites and the use of players, as well as allowing 2018 to become involved with its 17 major charitable projects across ten nations in Africa and Asia.
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Scudamore said: “The Premier League’s exposure combined with the Clubs’ communications and marketing expertise will give England’s bid a presence and impact around the world worth millions of pounds and will get their message out right across the world. The bid will draw on the support and passion for the Premier League, our technical merits, the legacy we can provide, and the range of partners and relationships that we have right across the football world.”