England 2018 lost because it did not have a compelling story admits marketing director

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

January 24 – England’s campaign to host the 2018 World Cup failed so spectacularly because its bid team had such poor relations with senior members at FIFA, a senior member of its management team admitted today.

The chaos that enveloped the bid in the closing stages included hiring a crane that was not high enough to reach the top of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square to put a scarf backing England 2018 around his neck.

David Magliano, the the director of commercial and marketing at England 2018, admitted that England’s bid was effectively doomed from the start because it did not share the close relations with FIFA President Sepp Blatter and other members of the ruling Executive Committee that its rivals did.

“There is no substitute for having long-established, warm, mutually-respectful relationships between people at the right level of seniority,” Magliano told the Conference & Incentive Travel Corporate Forum at Coworth Park.

“They have traded favours so there is a level of mutual trust.”

Magliano, who also worked on London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, told the Forum that England had been unsuccessful in its bid because it lacked those strong relationships, as well as a compelling story to persuade the FIFA it should host the World Cup.

England polled just two votes and were eliminated in the first round last month as Russia were awarded the tournament for the first time in their history.

Magliano also revealed some of the problems that beset the bid.

“During the 2018 bid we used football scarves as a symbol to back the bid and had gained permission to drape one around the neck of Nelson’s Column, but the day before the event, we discovered the crane wasn’t high enough,” said Magliano.

“That kind of issue is something that any events planner can recognise.”

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