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The Prince, the Politician and the Player

By Angela Harbutt
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:09 pm | 5 Comments | Posted in Culture

We didn’t so much “wheel out the big guns” in Zurich, for the England’s 2018 World Cup Bid over the past couple of days, as haul out “bloody great canons”. And had David Cameron been anywhere like as good during the General Election Leaders debates as he was today in the final presentation – he would have won the Tories a clear majority single-handed back in May. I am rather surprised and somewhat delighted that despite going into this process  in second or (maybe even) third place, Cameron has had the balls to go for it. With all the talk of how Blair won the Olympic bid,  Cameron is putting his political neck out – and that takes a bit of guts.

I was against the Olympic bid -it was hugely costly, London-centric and however you look at it we are hardly a nation of 100 metre sprinters and shot-putters. Football is however the great national sport of this country. The event would be hosted right across the country – spreading the love (and the financial benefit) countrywide. And we have the stadiums (or stadia?) and the fans and the carparks, training grounds and hotels pretty much sorted in almost all circumstances.

I confess I am somewhat conflicted about government getting involved in the process – and have never had much time for royalty – but I guess my love of the beautiful game is winning this particular battle – a case of “whatever it takes”…. So I will take Cameron involvement, and the royals lending a hand and, for the record, I am hoping we will win. Yes the FA is in need of a total overhaul, its relationship with the Premier League is a disaster, many of the big clubs have lost contact with the fans and too many of the smaller clubs are run by numpties and dimwits….and lets not even talk about the players…. But for all that,  we are a football mad nation… I am a self-confessed football fanatic – and the World Cup is the finest competition in the world.

It’s anyones guess who will win it. Mafia ridden-Russia, financially-stricken Spain/Portugal, safe but dull Dutch/Belgians or the serially-rubbish-at-international-football English. I hope its us. Good luck to the prince, the politician, the player -and everyone else involved.

UPDATE: Conflict over. Russia wins the bid to host 2018 World Cup.

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