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Barnes hoping to swing the vote for England

John Barnes has a good relationship with Jack Warner © Getty Images

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John Barnes has told ESPNsoccernet that the message he is delivering to the likes of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner is that England will deliver the biggest and best "multi-national festival of football" of all time, and he is confident it will be enough to clinch the CONCACAF votes and take England into a third round ballot.

Former England international Barnes might be better known for his stunning solo goal against Brazil in the Maracana, but he is turning out to be the bid team's secret weapon in Zurich. The Jamaican-born player is part of a last-minute drive to convert enough voters to pull back England's 2018 World Cup bid from the jaws of defeat.

While the focus has been on David Beckham, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and HRH Prince William, Barnes also has influence to deliver the three CONCACAF votes of the trio of Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer and Rafael Salguero.

Barnes, who has connections in the Caribbean and spent a year as manager of Jamaica, was one of the first names former FA chairman Lord Triesman revealed he had in mind to call up for vote-catching duty because of his enormous influence on men such as Warner. The FIFA vice-president is turning out to be pivotal to England's hopes of catching Russia and the joint bid of Spain and Portugal in the final 48 hours of hand-shaking, meeting and greeting.

Barnes had been very much in the background, but the man who has led FA coaching delegations to the Caribbean in his time as vice-president of the bid team is key if they are going to turn around all the anti-English feeling created by the bad timing of media investigations into alleged FIFA corruption, with the Panorama programme targeting Warner and his alleged ticket touting operations.

ESPNsoccernet caught up with Barnes in Zurich for a one-to-one interview just 24 hours before the FIFA executive committee cast their vote. Barnes said: "I've been working here with Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker as the support group, arriving in Zurich late on Tuesday evening and have been doing media interviews.

"But the hours before the actual votes are cast, I will have an opportunity to mingle and chat with Jack Warner, and I know Jack very well, of course, having been manager of Jamaica, and having been doing a series of coaching in the Caribbean to bring seven players to Sunderland for a trial, and Jack has been very grateful about that.

"Although I am not part of the lobbying group like David Beckham, I can play my part, I am sure, when I get the chance to speak with Jack. The tactics of all of this, to get England into a winning position, is to ensure we capture the votes in the second and third ballots. We know we won't win it first time, but I am sure that many of the FIFA executives haven't made up their minds who they will vote for on the second and third ballots.

"For those people who haven't made up their minds, we are here driving the message, and I know, with my relationships with certain people, I can help with a quiet chat on the day of the voting. The message I am driving home is that it will be a multi-national World Cup in England. One of the strongest aspects is that it will be a festival for the players and for the fans.

"From a playing perspective the majority of those playing in England are black or multi racial, and from the fans' point of view England will have a World Cup with such a diverse amount of people that every country will have a big fan base, so if the hosts go out early, there is still huge numbers of nationals in England to support their team, for example there would be 40,000 supporting Poland, 10,000 supporting Korea and so on. This is what makes England an authentic World Cup for me and should do for FIFA as well.

"In addition we have the technically superior bid, it makes commercial sense, and we have a great chance of going through to the second and third ballots and then we might just have a chance of winning it."

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