By Tom Degun
April 22 – Mayor of London Boris Johnson has come under fire as it was today revealed that he spent just under £300,000 ($495,000) on England’s shambolic bid to host the FIFA 2018 World Cup, which equates to nearly £50,000 ($83,000) more than he pledged.
Costs spiralled over budget as FIFA delegates received VIP treatment during a four-day inspection of potential 2010 World Cup venues last year, which included a visit to Wembley to meet England coach Fabio Capello, dinner with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and a stay at the Dorchester Hotel.
The England 2018 bid team suffered a humiliating defeat at they went out in the first round of voting after gaining just two votes from the 22-man FIFA Executive Committee, one of which came from Englishman Geoff Thompson.
But it has turned out that City Hall spent £295,000 ($487,000) despite Johnson originally committing only £250,000 ($413,000).
Another £150,000 ($248,000) came from the Mayor’s London Development Agency and a further £55,000 ($91,000) came from Visit London, the tourism agency part funded by the Mayor’s office, and another £10,000 ($16,000) from the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), both of which receive public money.
As revealed on insideworldfootball last week, Neale Coleman, Johnson’s advisor on the 2018 World Cup bid, told the London Assembly that the costs of the embarrassing failure should not have been so high, but also defended the spending.
“In hindsight we could have been a lot tighter on the 2018 World Cup bid had we more scrupulously gone through what we were spending and exactly how it was being spent,” Coleman said.
“But I also think that when there is such a big prize at stake, certain risks do have to be made and large sums of money do have to be spent.
“It is no secret that when the FIFA inspection team came to England to look at the stadiums, they stayed at the Dorchester Hotel and had dinner with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg but this is not out of the ordinary when it comes to bidding for major events.”
However Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Mike Tuffrey slammed the move, saying that Johnson should never have gone over budget.
“Having committed London to paying £250,000 ($413,000) in support of the bid, it cannot be right that taxpayers were forced to stump up additional money,” he said.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734791255labto1734791255ofdlr1734791255owedi1734791255sni@n1734791255uged.1734791255mot1734791255
Related stories
April 2011: England 2018 should not have spent so much money on bid claims London Mayor advisor