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By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – The bidding war for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups reaches a pivotal landmark today when the respective candidates go head to head at the Leaders in Football conference in London.
Contenders are forbidden under FIFA rules to criticise one another’s campaign or openly collude.
This has only added to the intrigue at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium when all bidding nations will be out to make an impression at an event attended by a string of movers and shakers, including half a dozen members of FIFA’s 24-strong executive committee.
Europe’s four candidates – England, Russia, Holland/Belgium and Spain/Portugal – lock horns in a debating panel this afternoon, preceded by a 2022 grouping of Qatar, Japan, Korea and the United States.
The presence of the US bid team in the first panel speaks volumes about their ultimate intention eventually to pull out of 2018 and concentrate only on 2022, the timing of which US bid chairman Sunil Gulati seems bound to address.
Of the nine candidates bidding for one or other tournament, Australia are the only absentees.
Bid representatives were quick to point out that nothing should be read into this – that a friendly international against Paraguay at the weekend, preceded by the FFA’s annual football awards 48 hours earlier, had simply made the timing impossible.
Whether the Australians are missing a trick at such a crucial networking occasion, with
so many influential figures in attendance, remains to be seen.
Australia are considered one of the two favourites for 2022 and outsiders such as Qatar will be quick to exploit any lobbying opportunities that are presented.
On the eve of Leaders in Football, the Spanish-Portuguese bid, of which little has been heard in terms of public relations, staged a hastily arranged round-table session with Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas (pictured).
Almost as if they felt they were being upstaged by rival bidders, the Spanish and Portuguese hired a public relations company and gave them less than 24 hours to invite a handful of cherry-picked media organisations to speak to the Spanish World Cup-winning midfield star.
“We love the game, we show how football should be played, we play with humility and behave with it on and off the pitch – which I think counts for a lot,” said Fabregas.
“And of course we have the fans.”
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