The SIG Column – 21 February

With both the US and England mooting the potential for tabling a bid to host the 2018 World Cup, Drew Barrand, head of media at Sport Industry Group, draws up the battlelines of the two countries’ respective claims…

The relationship between England and the US is an undoubted enigma. While generic social regard swings wildly from disdainful mocking on one side to quaint but patronising affection on the other, politically it’s always been a mutual love-in.

However, in the footballing world, the news that both sides of the Atlantic were preparing to table bids to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup looks set to consign such back-scratching to the proverbial rubbish bin.

No sooner had Chancellor Gordon Brown revealed the positive findings of the governmental report into the potential for a World Cup bid – in essence laying the groundwork for the FA to pursue a 2018 bid – than the US Soccer Federation declared that it too was ready to enter the race.

While neither bid has been officially tabled as yet – nor are they required to be until 2010 – such early chatter shows that it is a serious consideration for both countries.

On the English side, a bid seems the next natural step for a country keen to impose itself on the sporting landscape after a serious of misfortunes.

Fresh from winning the 2012 Olympics and with a new national stadium in place, an English World Cup bid has perhaps never been such a viable option and, even more importantly in the eyes of the country’s football hierarchy, would put the final nail in the coffin of the unsavoury reminders of the somewhat laughable attempt to secure the 2006 tournament.

With FIFA already stating that the 2014 event will be hosted in South America, the quadrennial World Cup merry-go-round is scheduled to return to European shores in 2018.

Previous concerns that marred the 2006 bid, most pertinently hooliganism and a lack of infrastructure, no longer seem as much of an issue. The other major European football countries have arguably overtaken England in terms of fan behaviour issues while the new Wembley and the impact of hosting the Olympics have increased the seriousness with which FIFA views the country’s ability to stage big events.

All of which seems to place England in pole position. Until the American intervention that is.

FIFA has long voiced its desire to crack the US market – the one corner of the planet, and the most lucrative corner at that, where football is not the dominant sporting currency.

Progress has been made. Beginning with the staging of the 1994 World Cup tournament, this progression has run through to the integration of American players into the European leagues, a stronger showing from the nation at World Cups, and the beady eyes with which US entrepreneurs are increasingly viewing European clubs.

With a much stronger platform for growth than was the case in 1994, the temptation for FIFA to interrupt its routine continent-by-continent world tour premise for World Cup bids is a force to be reckoned. The US could well and truly rain on England’s parade.

While the relative merits of each bid is likely to cause endless consternation for the best part of the next decade, there is an interesting subplot to the England v US debate which holds a more current resonance.

Which side will manage to employ the omnipotent selling power of one David Beckham?

The former England captain’s well-referenced staunch patriotism will come up against the demands of his new found role as the shining light of US football ahead of his summer transfer to LA Galaxy.

Potentially the ace in the pack for both bids, Beckham is likely to become the subject of an ambassadorial tug of war which will continue long after his playing career has wound down.

Like Hollywood movie writers, all through his career Beckham and his advisors have seemingly had the uncanny knack of being able to dictate the script ahead of time. Part of this is of course down to luck but an even bigger part comes down to judgement.

All of which leads one to the sneaky suspicion that a prior knowledge of the respective 2018 bids from England and the US may have been a deciding factor in Beckham’s American transfer. It wouldn’t be the first time the Beckham juggernaut had smelt out an opportunity before the rest of the industry was aware it even existed.