Why the 2018 defeat could be a good thing for England

Senes Erzik is believed to have reneged upon a handshake agreement with Thompson by voting for Holland/Belgium instead, making it difficult for the members of England’s team not to take Fifa’s snub personally. If that is the case, then the FA’s courting of and subsequent abandonment by Jack Warner leaves an uglier taste. The head of Concacaf is a very powerful man at Fifa and he has not been shy in the past of being a critic of English football, sometimes with colourful language. A friendly against Trinidad & Tobago in 2008 and the appearance of David Beckham at a soccer clinic in the Caribbean this September were attempts to appease Warner but his fragile support for England 2018 never inspired trust. Warner faced corruption allegations of his own relating to ticket sales in the Panorama programme and, whether that media investigation was the reason for his change of heart or not, the uncomfortable truth for the bid team is that they played the political game with a man who once asked the Scottish FA to make out a cheque for a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago to his own personal account.

The World Cup is unlikely to be hosted in western Europe for another twenty years because after Brazil, Russia and Qatar have had their turns it is thought that China will be awarded the 2026 tournament as Fifa continues its quest to take the event on tour. However, the consensus is that England should not even think about bidding again for as long as the voting system exists in its current state. With the destination of the World Cup being decided by such a concentrated group of men, the process is too open both to agreements being made regarding exchanges of votes between members and the possibility of decisions being swayed by matters unconnected to football. These factors combined to damage England’s chances even when the bid team tried to take advantage of the system, when the South Korean ExCo member Dr Mong-joon voted for Russia despite having pledged to support England 2018 in return for Geoff Thompson backing Korea’s 2022 campaign. Dr Mong-joon was supposedly acting upon his government’s concerns that not supporting Russia would prove costly to diplomatic relations with North Korea. The 2018 bid was undone not by the strength of its presentation, which was widely praised, or its vision for the tournament, which promised comprehensive benefits for the game at home and abroad, but by the endemic disregard towards English football within Fifa.

Perceived arrogance is one possible reason for England’s unpopularity with the rest of the world, who accuse the nation of a sense of entitlement that stems from their embracing of the “it’s coming home” mindset that Euro 96 thrived upon. The allegations of bribery and corruption made against Fifa members by Panorama and the Sunday Times might not have helped England’s position but that position was not particularly strong to begin with. The power that the Premier League wields in the English game is a constant niggle to Fifa, who exist to run the international game but have seen club football become the more dominant element of the sport – at least in a financial sense. English football has a lot of problems but these are nothing as compared to the crises engulfing the sport in other parts of the world. Money is at the root of most of the grievances that fans have about the running of the game in this country whereas racism and corruption are the issues elsewhere, most notably in Russia.

With the Football Association enjoying an unexpected period of sympathy from the public, who equally have been appalled by the machinations of Fifa, now is the time for the English game’s powers to demonstrably show how they exist as a power for good. The signs are positive. The Football Association has already spent £6m over the past ten years supporting overseas football and the Premier League chipped in £3m last year alone. Furthermore, an inquiry likely to be launched by the House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport early in 2011 will be tasked with examining how English football is run and how it might be improved. By collectively turning their backs on Fifa, whose favour English football should not seek again any time soon, a new spirit of cooperation and solidarity could emerge between the Football Association and the Premier League to tackle longstanding issues at the top of the game regarding club ownership and the distribution of television money, with the benefits filtering through the Football League and down to the grassroots game. England’s best revenge against Fifa would be to, symbolically, take their ball away and concentrate on playing and running the game at home as well as possible.

Follow William Abbs on Twitter.