By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
November 29 – England’s 2018 World Cup bid chief Andy Anson promised today to “fight like crazy” to secure the required number of votes to get England over the line in Thursday’s ballot.
Speaking at a news conference at a hotel on the banks of Lake Zurich, Anson said no stone would be left unturned to beat England’s three European rivals in the race to stage the tournament for the first time since 1966.
“We are in the first 10 of the final 100 metres,” said Anson who revealed he knew exactly how many votes England currently had. “We’ve been having meetings this morning and last night and we know what our path is to victory.”
“We know all the options and are planning accordingly.
“I’m not going to talk about actual votes but we know who is committed to supporting us and the votes we think we can get.
“There are people who still have to decide.
“We’ve got to work very hard to make sure that everything comes to fruition.”
Anson admitted England were underdogs but said there was still time to nose in front of frontrunners Spain/Portugal and Russia.
“We may be underdogs as we sit here now but we can win it,” he said.
Anson also re-iterated his displeasure at the BBC’s decision to proceed with tonight’s Panorama programme which will heap even more corruption allegation on FIFA following the recent Sunday Times expose.
“Of course I’m disappointed with the timing,” said Anson who revealed he would not be watching the transmission because of lobbying commitment.
“It won’t win us any votes.
“But FIFA gave us a very strong evaluation and have just published an economic study which puts England way ahead of its competitors.
“If you combine the two, we clearly have the strongest bid.
“It’s the perfect foundation.”
Anson admitted, however, that the folly of back-to-back ballots had reduced the chances of the best bid being chosen as hosts.
“It has definitely given many of the FIFA Executive Committee members something to think about other than just which is the best bid, with nine competitors bidding across two campaigns.
“Discussions about how maybe you could help each other were always inevitable once you had two campaigns running consecutively.”
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