By Andrew Warshaw at the Leaders in Football Conference in London
October 6 – Britain’s Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson today admitted that England’s inability to win the 2018 World Cup bid was “the biggest single failure” of his reign.
England received just two votes in December, with Russia winning by a landslide.
Speaking here at the Leaders in Football conference, Robertson admitted it was an embarrassing outcome.
“When I look back on it now, I wish we had the gumption or the knowledge to realise at a very early stage that FIFA wanted something fundamentally different than what we were putting on the table,” he said.
“I wish we had had foresight to appreciate that earlier in order to stop the investment of £15 million [$23 million/€18 million].
“No Sports Minister can sit here and be absolutely confident about a bid that cost sport in this country £15 million which otherwise could have been invested somewhere else.
“We were saying we will run the best available tournament…the problem was that was not what they [FIFA] wanted.
“They wanted the opportunity to take those World Cups to new markets that they had not penetrated in any way before.
“We were never in the game.”
Robertson defended the decision to involve both Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) and Prince William in the final stages of the bid process.
“If you take something like that on, you throw everything at it,” he said.
“You shouldn’t for a moment mistake his [Cameron’s] genuine irritation about how it all panned out.
“Perhaps we were guilty of naivety but it’s a pretty sad day when you look someone in the eye, ask them for their vote and they promise they will give it to you – and then don’t do so.”
Back in January, Robertson branded football as the worst governed sport in the country.
Invited to speak on the subject of governance, he said things had now improved following the Football Association’s decision to add two independent directors to its board.
But there was still much to be done and Robertson warned that if the FA, the Premier League and the Football League did not come up with further reforms then the government were already drafting legislation to force changes through.
“We are in the process of drawing up the legislation just in case that becomes necessary, but I hope it will not be,” Robertson said.
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