• World Cup 2018

English media to blame for failed bid - Warner

ESPNsoccernet staff
December 7, 2010
Jack Warner wields a lot of influence at FIFA © Getty Images
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FIFA vice-president Jack Warner claims there is no way FIFA could have awarded the 2018 World Cup to England after the way the press behaved in the run-up to the vote.

The Sunday Times exposed corruption inside FIFA and then just three days before the committee sat to decide who would hose the finals the BBC's Panorama threw more mud at world football's governing body - with Warner one of those explicitly accused of impropriety.

England gained just one vote other than that of their own delegate on the committee, losing the three votes which Warner had been expected to give to England from the Concacaf region. But Warner chose not to support the bid after the allegations.

Warner revealed on Tuesday: "Suffice it to say that the FIFA ExCo as a body could not have voted for England having been insulted by their media in the worst possible way at the same time. To do so would have been the ultimate insult [to FIFA].''

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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