Blatter invited to Downing Street by Cameron

June 19 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured) has today been officially invited to Downing Street by Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary State for Culture, Media and Sport, extended Cameron’s invitation to Blatter during a visit to the World Cup in South Africa.

He said: ”I’ve brought with me to South Africa a letter from David Cameron to Sepp Blatter inviting him to Downing Street to discuss the strength of the bid.

“It will be some time in the autumn and we really look forward to seeing him.

“What we really want to do is ensure our contact with him and with other FIFA Executive Committee members isn’t just a one-off pitch.

“We want to meet them on a regular basis so they get a sense of how committed we are.”

Hunt claimed that after meeting senior members from FIFA he is confident that England’s bid will overcome the controversy caused by the comments made by former Football Association chairman and bid leader Lord Triesman in which he accused rivals Russia and Spain over colluding to fix matches at the World Cup.

Hunt said: ”It is fair to say that it was a bad setback, but we were helped by the fact that the FA and the bid team dealt with it very quickly and decisively and Lord Triesman himself recognised that something had to be done quickly.

“I talked to quite a few of the FIFA Executive Committee members and the sense I got was that this is something that England has pulled through and they really want England to put forward a strong bid.

“I think we’ve got technically the best bid, commercially without doubt the best bid and so they want to judge the bid on its merits and not on the comments Lord Triesman made.”

Hunt also claimed that England did not have to prove themselves as much as their rivals.

He said: ”Sepp Blatter has said himself that other countries need to prove they can host the World Cup but that England doesn’t.

“Our reputation and the facilities we have got will be a big boost.

“More money will be available to support football around the world and one of the key messages of the bid will be what we can do for global football.

“Part of our bid is the Football United fund which we would set up, and we hope would be an ongoing fund which would be contributed to by every World Cup host in the future.

“In terms of the legacy in England, we’re talking about using 2018 to get 4.5 million more people playing the game, we’re talking about setting up a disability football centre, we’re talking about giving every girl at school the opportunity to play football.”