Rodney Marsh: It was almost as if we were being dismissed, as if we didn’t count for anything

I said last month that England had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the 2018 World Cup finals, but it gives me no satisfaction to have been proved right.

I thought Russia winning the 2018 finals was a fait accompli. And Qatar getting the 2022 finals will be devastating for the US domestic game. FIFA have clearly taken a decision to take their finals further afield.

England had the best presentation – I thought David Beckham was sensational – but it all counted for nothing. To get just two votes and go out in the first round, it was almost as if we were being dismissed, as if we didn’t count for anything. I found it upsetting.

It does leave a taste in the mouth, but you just have to take it on the chin and move on. FIFA is such a powerful entity that there is nothing else to be done.

I wasn’t that surprised to see Russia get 2018, even though the odds had gone out on them as the vote approached.

But when you think of the distances that will have to be travelled there, and the new stadiums that they will have to build, I think something would have to have happened somewhere down the line to convince FIFA members to support them.

I don’t think it was the crucial factor, but I think our left-wing, liberal media did the England bid no good at all by alienating FIFA with their investigations over the last few months. This do-gooding idea that all the workings of the World Cup bidding process have to be made public – it drives me up the wall.

I’m not saying the vote would have been different if the British media had acted in a different way – but I still think people like the Sunday Times and the BBC have a case to answer.

It was never going to be England in 2018, though, so I was pulling for the Spain-Portugal bid to get the decision, as I felt they had the most complete bid, and from that point of view I was surprised at the result.

But then England were said to have a technically excellent bid, and they have a great history. It’s almost as if tradition and heritage don’t count for anything any more.

It looks like England’s next chance of the finals would be 2030. I don’t think I will be worrying too much about that vote!

It was clearly pretty close between the US and Qatar for the 2022 finals, but I think the result will be devastating for US football.

I know exactly how it is going to play in the States. First Obama goes over to Europe to try and get the 2016 Olympics for Chicago without success, and now Europe has knocked them back over the World Cup finals.

Speaking to my sources in the US domestic game this week, they sounded pretty confident about the bid. But this is going to be a big black eye for soccer in the US.

Rodney Marsh is one of the most charismatic and entertaining players to have graced English football. He played more than 400 games and scored over 150 goals during a career at Queen’s Park Rangers, Manchester City and Fulham which saw him win nine England caps. He was also one of the early pioneers of English players to carve out a name for himself in the United States, scoring 41 goals in 87 appearances for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Marsh is now a popular and respected pundit who will be writing regularly for insideworldfootball.