England has lost out in its bid to win the 2018 World Cup.
In Zurich this afternoon, Sepp Blatter President of Fifa, the world’s governing body, announced that Russia’s bid had beaten off competition from England, Netherlands-Belgium and Spain to hold the 2018 World Cup.
Figures in the English press have suggested that England failed to make the final round of the voting stage with recent media allegations working against them.
Controversy blighted the build-up to the ballot, with the Fifa executive committee reduced from 24 members after the suspension of two voters.
Nigerian Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, of Tahiti, were given bans of three years and one year respectively after claims made in the Sunday Times newspaper that they were prepared to sell their votes for the 2018 tournament.
On Monday, the BBC’s Panorama programme alleged three other Fifa officials – Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira – took bribes in the 1990s.
England had hoped to recover from the negative publicity surrounding them and Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham have all been in Zurich this week to back the bid which ultimately proved unsuccessful.
Russia becomes the first eastern European country to host the competition.
The Zinedine Zidane led Qatar bid landed the 2022 tournament overcoming competition from Australia, the United States, South Korea and Japan.
