Fifa Executives Prepare For 2018 World Cup Vote

Years of planning and campaigning by bid teams will rest on the shoulders of 22 FIFA executive members today as they decide who should play host to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.

England will go head-to-head with Russia and joint bids from Spain/ Portugal and Holland/ Belgium to host the 2018 finals.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham lead the England 2018 delegate team into discussions with FIFA members and have held meetings with FIFA president Sepp Blatter and vice-president Jack Warner.

Beckham has dismissed that the negative reports by the British media in the run up to the decision will have an effect of the FIFA members: ‘I think that we can trust every one of the members. They are football people and they are going to want a World Cup in the best country that they think could host the biggest sporting event in the world.’

Another boost to England’s bid came after Issa Hayatou has said that bribery claims made against him in the BBC Panorama documentary will not determine his vote: ‘There is a big difference between Panorama and my relationship with the England bid, there is no confusion in my mind.’

Meanwhile, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that he will not attend the FIFA vote – despite his presence having an impact on Russia’s victory to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Putin did lay into the recent allegations filed against FIFA members by BBC’s Panorama however: ‘I would like to note that recently we have watched with disappointment as an obvious campaign was being unleashed against members of the FIFA executive committee. We believe that such methods of competition are entirely unacceptable.’

Cristiano Ronaldo will not be able to fulfill his task of attending the event after needing treatment on an ankle injury.

The Oceania Football Confederation has also confirmed that it will not get a vote in the FIFA ballot to decide on the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The move comes as OFC president Reynald Temarii’s decided to press on with his bid to overturn a ban imposed him by FIFA after a probe into vote-buying allegations.

If Temarii had dropped his appeal then Oceania would have been able to nominate a replacement to vote in his place.

The decision will be a huge blow to Australia’s 2022 bid – as it competes with Qatar, USA and Japan and South Korea’s joint bid to host the tournament.