By Duncan Mackay
December 5 – England’s pairing with Algeria in the draw for 2010 World Cup seems set to give them the country’s 2018 World Cup bid the perfect opportunity to try to impress one of the 24 members of FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee who are due to vote next year on which countries should host the tournament.
Discussions have already opened for Egypt to play them to Wembley Stadium in March to play a World Cup warm-up match that would also give them the chance to invite Hany Abou Rida, a member of the Executive Committee.
The 56-year-old Egyptian businessman is also a member of the country’s FA and the African Confederation and it is believed he is one of the members of the Executive Committee who is still weighing up who to vote for at the meeting in Zurich on December 2, 2010.
England manager Fabio Capello has expressed his desire to line up a friendly with Egypt for March 3 in order to give his players experience of a team with a similar style to World Cup group opponents Algeria.
Algeria beat Egypt 1-0 to clinch a place in the World Cup finals, a stormy play-off match in Sudan that was marred by violence and is now the subject of an investigation by FIFA.
The Egyptians, nicknamed the Pharaohs, are the most successful African team at Confederation level having won the African Nations Cup six times.
But they have a poor World Cup record, having qualified on only two occasions, in 1934 and 1990.
England have already played Trinidad & Tobago, the home country of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, in a friendly as part of the 2018 World Cup campaign and the idea of travelling to Thailand to play to help secure the vote of Worawi Makudi has also been mooted.
The proposed friendly rounds off a hugely-successful week for the bid team who were delighted by David Beckham’s impact both in the international media and in one-on-one meetings with the FIFA hierarchy.
England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson said: “It has been a brilliant week and it really feels like the starting gun has been fired.
“Everyone has seen that when we get our act together we are a formidable proposition.”
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