£2.5 million boost to England 2018 World Cup bid campaign

By Duncan Mackay

December 19 – England’s 2018 World Cup bid received a massive boost tonight as Gordon Brown’s Government confirmed it is backing the campaign with a £2.5 million loan.

The move comes days after Ministers signed off £300 million worth of financial guarantees for the bid that are required by world governing body FIFA.

It will help fund the Football Association’s drive to persuade FIFA to give the tournament to England when the sport’s governing body meets in Zurich on December 2, 2010, to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

At the start of the campaign, it had been hoped that the Government would commit a grant of £5 million but that has not been forthcoming, despite the personal support of the Prime Minister for the bid.

Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said that the loan will be paid back – along with a share of the profits from the tournament if England’s bid wins – to support grassroots sport.

Sutcliffe, who sits on the 2018 World Cup Advisory Group, said: “We are very pleased to confirm that, on top of the support we have already given by signing off guarantees worth around £300 million, we have agreed to lend England 2018 £2.5 million, to help the campaign team make the case for a fantastic World Cup in England in 2018.”

English football may be the richest in the world thanks to the Premier League but they are currently the poor relations of the World Cup bidding race.

The Russian bid is said to have more than £30 million at its disposal – twice England’s budget – while Qatar have entered the bidding for the 2022 tournament backed by a pot reputed to be worth more than £100 million.

But England 2018 officials are hoping that the 20 Premier League clubs will back a proposal by Stoke City to donate £250,000 each to the campaign, which would raise £5 million.

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