By Duncan Mackay
November 25 – Richard Caborn, the former Sports Minister, has effectively called for Lord Triesman to be sacked as head of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup and replaced by Gary Lineker (pictured), the country’s second-highest international goalscorer who is now a presenter with BBC Television.
By Duncan Mackay
November 24 – Portsmouth City Council tonight voted against putting itself forward as a host city if England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup is successful after they said they were not prepared to put up the £15 million guarantee required.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 24 – England’s 2018 World Cup bid has been plunged into further turmoil by the resignation today from the Board of Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards (pictured).
By Andrew Warshaw
November 23 – Tottenham Hotspur have stolen a march on their rivals by becoming the first club to sign up to London United’s submission for potential 2018 World Cup venues.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 21 – England’s campaign to stage the 2018 World Cup would have died on its feet had FIFA vice-president Geoff Thompson (pictured) been left without a role to play, a senior bid source has exclusively told insideworldfootball.
By Duncan Mackay
November 19 – England’s 2018 World Cup bid is set to save £50,000 on transporting David Beckham (pictured) to South Africa to promote its campaign after Los Angeles Galaxy cancelled its post-season tour of Germany.
November 17 – Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe (pictured) has claimed that it was his idea for England 2018 to streamline its Board so that it could focus on the campaign to bring the World Cup back to the country for the first time since 1966.
By Tom Degun
November 17 – England have been warned by Tony Woodcock (pictured), one of its high-profile ambassadors, that they are behind European rivals Russia and Spain and Portugal’s joint bid in the race to host the 2018 World Cup.
By Duncan Mackay
November 16 – Simon Greenberg (pictured), the communications and public affairs director at Chelsea, has been appointed as chief of staff for England’s 2018 World Cup bid with special responsibilities with strategic communications.
November 16 – England 2018 will promote their bid to host the World Cup at the Soccerex Global Convention in South Africa later this month to bring the total of rival bidders taking a presence in Johannesburg to six, over half of those competing to stage the event.
By Duncan Mackay in Doha
November 15 – England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup is doing as well as its rivals, Mohamed Bin Hammam (pictured), the President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said here today.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – FIFA vice-president Jack Warner (pictured), the man who undermined England’s 2018 World Cup bid, has launched another verbal broadside, this time taking Premier League clubs to task for refusing to release players for international duty and denouncing the Football Association for rejecting a request to play a friendly against his country.
By Duncan Mackay in Doha
November 13 – David Beckham (pictured) has been asked to rescue England’s faltering 2018 World Cup by travelling to Cape Town next month to try to influence the 24 men who will decide which country hosts the event.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 13 – Call it papering over the cracks, wielding the axe. Call it what you will. The one question that remains as baffling now as it did before, following the restructuring of England’s 2018 World Cup bid board, is this. Why on earth wasn’t Geoff Thompson (pictured) brought on board from the start?
By Duncan Mackay
November 12 – England has trimmed its bid team for the 2018 World Cup to replace some of the politicians and businessmen on the board with sporting figures but Lord Triesman (pictured) remains as chairman despite speculation he would stand down or be replaced.