England's World Cup bid team will be relying on David Beckham's
star quality to dazzle FIFA when it hands over its official
documents on Friday.
While an Achilles' injury has ended the Los Angles Galaxy
midfielder's hopes of playing at another World Cup this June, he
will be leading the bid delegation to FIFA headquarters in Zurich
as they try to win England the right to host the 2018 tournament.
"The great thing about David is that if he suddenly appeared
in any village on the planet, everyone would know who he was,"
Football Association chairman David Triesman said Monday. "People
love seeing him and he will play a leading role in the presentation
of the book."
Each country vying to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups will
hand over bid books containing technical details on Friday, with
England's taking up almost 1,800 pages.
Technical inspections of all the countries are due between
July and September, and the final vote by FIFA's 24-man executive
committee is on Dec. 2.
England's bid hasn't been helped by criticism of the Wembley
Stadium pitch, with another new playing surface being laid last
month - the 11th since the rebuilt home of English football opened
in 2007.
With several FIFA executive committee members expected for
the FA Cup final on Saturday between Chelsea and Portsmouth, the
bid team will hope problems with the slippery, uneven field have
been eradicated.
"We knew how to get a good pitch, (but) it slipped, it went
backward," Triesman said. "We shouldn't have let this happen and we
will have an exceptional pitch. We should never let the lesson slip
and we won't ... whatever the peculiarities of the microclimate
there we can do it."
One of the FIFA members England must persuade to vote for
them is Worawi Makudi of Thailand.
And on Monday, England announced it will play Thailand, which
is coached by former captain Bryan Robson, for the first time in
June 2011.
Officially, the match is to celebrate the 65th anniversary of
King Bhumibol's accession to the Thai throne.
Before the FIFA vote, Triesman also hopes president Sepp
Blatter will be able to make an official visit to England to meet
whoever emerges as prime minister following Britain's deadlocked
general election.
As well as England, Australia, Russia and the United States,
plus joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands are
competing to host either 2018 or 2022. Japan, Qatar and South Korea
will concentrate on 2022, believing Europe is favored for 2018.
