Russia were named as the hosts, with Qatar securing the 2022 event, but hopes had been high that the presence of prime minister David Cameron, former captain David Beckham and Prince William, allied to an excellent final presentation and a strong technical bid, would be enough for England to win the hosting rights for the first time since 1966. But the bid was eliminated in the first round of voting, with suggestions emerging that England were victims of a backlash against criticisms of FIFA by the British media. But Redknapp said: "We all know what's probably gone on. We can't probably say, can we really? "It was amazing that suddenly two such wealthy countries have ended up with the World Cup there. "Don't tell me that we haven't got a better product to offer than Russia in terms of football in this country." Redknapp continued: "It's like going on X Factor, coming on, doing what you do. You're either good or you're not good. "It's not a case then you go back, meet up with the judges for a couple of days and have a chat and say, 'You should be voting for me really. I'm a sexy bird, I'll get my gear off for you'. What's it all about? "You've either got it or you haven't got it and I thought we had it. We had the product." Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson was similarly disheartened, believing a tournament in England would have been a "rip-roaring success". He said: "I am really disappointed. For me 1966 is such a long time ago and here in England we have so much going for us in terms of football. "I think a World Cup (in England) would have been a rip-roaring success. We have the stadia, the passion of the fans and we have the quality of the infrastructure to accommodate people and get them from match to match. "It seemed to be everything was crying out for England to be given to the World Cup and I was pretty confident when we started off that we would get it. "Hearing it went to Russia and that we only got two votes is particularly disheartening." Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce believes the embarrassing early exit in the voting could harm any future bids from England to stage the competition. He said: "I thought it was a tremendous finishing presentation from England. But when you saw the vote count afterwards, it has to be a massive concern for the future. "Only two people voted for our country to get the World Cup. "Looking at the facilities and our bid, we had everything in place to host a World Cup. "I think research has to go into the reasons why we didn't get it and what we have to do to try to get it in 2026. "It deserves to come back here sooner or later but it is a long wait now to even get the opportunity. "But from the bid point of view, all was put together extremely well." Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who strongly backed the bid, described it as a decision from the "Middle Ages". The Frenchman said: "It looked to me a little bit of a Middle Age way to decide. You would like to have much more technical criteria than human criteria. "You could have 100 criteria for example with a different weight and you put that in a computer and the best comes out. "It doesn't look right in modern life that people have to go over there and lobby and say 'please believe in us.' I would like to see it be more technical. "You have to work in the modern life to get all suspicion out. Is the suspicion right or wrong I don't know, but you don't want a vote of that importance to be the subject of suspicion." And Sunderland boss Steve Bruce was critical of suggestions that the English media were at fault for the low number of votes cast in England's favour. "If it is just the media, and that seems to be the big thing that's coming out at the moment, people being frightened of our free press - and at times it isn't easy to deal with - that's pretty sad stuff." he said.
