Football: World Cup 2006 - England must win political game

WITH A little less than seven years to go until the 2006 World Cup finals start, the first ball was metaphorically kicked in anger yesterday when three of the prospective hosts, South Africa, Morocco and England handed in their official bids at the headquarters of Fifa, world football's governing body.

At precisely 2pm yesterday a South African "praise singer" dressed in traditional tribal costume walked into a small room in a plush hilltop suburb of Zurich, overlooking a lake. The room was adorned with television cameras, a small table (on top of which sat the World Cup), and Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa. The singer was followed by the South African bid team, including the minister for sport, Ngoonde Balfour, the president of the South African FA, Molefi Oliphant, and the head of the bid team, Danny Jordaan. They made their presentation, which was graciously accepted by Blatter. They were followed by Morocco and then England, whose bids were also graciously accepted. Brazil and Germany will follow today.

Such is the nature of international sporting events these days that bid submissions have become major public-relations exercises designed to tell the global market that you want its business. However, when the decision is made (next July, by Fifa's 24-man executive) the decision on which country will host the tournament is likely to depend less on the quality of the bids, per se, but on politics and personalities.

Blatter has always said that he would like to see the 2006 event go to South Africa and is likely to do everything he can to persuade the executive that that is what should happen. "We are confident that if we comply fully with all of Fifa's requirements then surely it is Africa's turn," Jordaan said of his country's bid.

If the bids alone were scrutinised for their suitability then England's would be hard to beat. Fifa requires that each bid has between eight and 12 stadiums with capacities of at least 40,000, two of which should hold 60,000 and be capable of staging semi-finals and one of which should be 80,000-plus for the final. By 2006 England will have the new Wembley with 90,000 seats, plus 60,000-plus stadiums at Old Trafford and the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. It already has nine stadiums that are close to the required standard, with several others (in Coventry, Leicester and Manchester, where a new venue is to be built to stage the Commonwealth Games) planned. England has the proven infrastructure and transport facilities, as well as a rich footballing heritage. It has also, perhaps crucially, got a government machine behind it that will be prepared to pull out all the stops, diplomatic and otherwise, to win the tournament. "The British government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to assure that the 2006 World Cup is the best ever," Tony Banks, the Prime Minister's special envoy, said yesterday.

Of the other bidders, Brazil are thought to be the outsiders because of lack of finance and enthusiasm at home. The Germans will undoubtedly submit a technically excellent bid, but there are question marks over whether the government will give its full (and financial) backing.

Which leaves the two African candidates. Morocco see themselves as compromise candidates, according to one insider. They do no expect to win, but feel that they would make a good half-way house between England and South Africa. The Moroccan bid makes much of the country as a tourist destination and as being close to Europe, but in truth it is unlikely to come close and has admitted that it would not embark on developing facilities unless it won. This approach will not win many votes.

South Africa, then, is the country that the England bid team regard as the opponents to beat. Its 1,500 pages detail that it has 13 stadiums of required quality (11 of which are already in place); there are modern facilities and communications; and it is fit to hold major tournaments such as the 1995 rugby World Cup and the 2003 cricket World Cup. And, crucially, that it has never hosted a football World Cup and it is time for that to be addressed.

"African sensation. First world infrastructure. It's Africa's turn," runs the motto. "We are ready. We are right," runs the English version. Only 11 months to go to see which proves to be true.