By Tom Degun
November 17 – England have been warned by Tony Woodcock (pictured), one of its high-profile ambassadors, that they are behind European rivals Russia and Spain and Portugal’s joint bid in the race to host the 2018 World Cup.
Woodcock, the former England and Nottingham Forest striker, has watched with interest the developments at England’s campaign, which included a streamlining of the Board last week by under-fire bid chairman Lord Triesman.
He told insidethegames: ”If we don’t get it [the World Cup], then we need to look at ourselves and say, ‘Have we done everything we can to get it here?’
“I think the other countries involved in the bidding process are in the favoured position at the moment; Spain and Russia for example are campaigning very very hard right now and seem to be ahead of us so it’s going to be very interesting.
“The game has become so global now that everyone is pitching for a World Cup and you can’t just wait for it to come to you, you’ve got to go out there and take it.
“So far, from my point of view, the England bid is only really taking off right now.
“There have been one or two high profile critics of the England bid and I think that has given a few of the bidding team a bit of a kick up the backside.
“I think we need to realise that just because we’ve got the Premier League, the best stadiums, some of the greatest fans in the world and the best infrastructure that would combined to create a fantastic World Cup, it’s not just going to come to us and we all have to put in our fair share to bring it to England.
“Not just the people involved in the bid, but people and fans all over the country as well as people in all the cities aiming to host World Cup matches in 2018.
“England is the home of football and everything is geared towards us hosting a great World Cup but we can’t just sit around and wait for it, we’ve got to go out there and take it.”
Woodcock, who also played for FC Köln and Fortuna Köln in the Bundesliga and scored 16 goals in 42 appearances for England, admitted that he was surprised at the sweeping changes made by Triesman, which included cutting Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe from the main Board and adding former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson.
The 53-year-old Woodcock, who also had a spell with Arsenal, said: “It’s a bit of a surprise to me that we got a bit of criticism and suddenly there are major changes.
“But let’s think positive and hope these changes are for the best.
“The people on the inside have a little more knowledge than we do so let’s hope these changes will help us get what we want and that’s the World Cup in 2018.
“Time is running out fast but as I said, we’ve got it all here to be great hosts.”
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