By Duncan Mackay in Zurich
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
November 18 – British Prime Minister David Cameron has invited FIFA vice-president Jack Warner to lunch in Zurich next week as lobbying for the 2018 World Cup intensifies, it has been reported.
Cameron will travel to Switzerland next Thursday (November 25) for a two-hour lunch with Warner, Trinidad & Tobago’s Newsday newspaper claimed today.
They reported that Cameron personally rung Warner, who was touring a sewer plant at the time of the call, to issue the invitation.
“He called to ask me for my support for the English bid and he asked me to join him for lunch next week Thursday and he hoped [David] Beckham was a good ambassador and said that if there was anything he can do for Trinidad and Tobago he will be prepared to do so,” Warner told the newspaper.
Warner’s support is seen as critical if England’s bid is to be successful.
Cameron will be the second British Prime Minister to lobby Warner on the bid’s behalf.
In November 2009 Warner, who earlier this year was appointed Minister of Works and Transport in Trinidad’s new Government, also had a private meeting with Gordon Brown.
The Football Association played a friendly in Port-of-Spain against Trinidad in 2007 and two months ago Beckham visited Trinidad along with several members of the bid team to open one of his football academy’s there.
Nelson Mandela also courted Warner, the President of CONCACAF, during South Africa’s successful bid for the 2010 World Cup, travelling to Trinidad in 2004 to meet him.
But Warner has stopped short of promising his backing for England, warning that they face serious opposition from Russia, who have also targeted his support.
“If he [Cameron] can overcome the Russian bid, which I think is gaining momentum, he doesn’t have a problem,” said Warner.
“I don’t think he has to worry about the other countries too much.”
Downing Street normally refuse to confirm the Prime Minister’s schedule for security reasons.
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