England's World Cup dream 'killed by media', FIFA execs tell bid chief

England's World Cup bid was "killed" by recent media coverage of FIFA, some executive committee members at the world footballing body told the man in charge of the England 2018 bid.

Speaking at a press conference, the bid's chief executive Andy Anson said he had been told by some executive members involved in the voting process that recent investigations by the Sunday Times and BBC Panorama had damaged the country's chances of winning hosting rights for the competition.

"We have spoken to some executive committee members and I'll be very clear that what they are saying to us is one thing and I'll caveat this by saying that this is not our excuse at all, but they are saying that our media killed us. I don't believe that, I don't believe that for one minute. You've given us a hard ride at various times, but you've given us a good fair ride as well, we've had a lot of dialogue," said Anson.

Yesterday FIFA announced that Russia would host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar would take the championships in 2022. On Monday BBC Panorama aired an investigation by freelance sports journalist Andrew Jennings, which carried allegations of corruption and bribery against several FIFA officials.

In October the Sunday Times published allegations of bribery and corruption against two FIFA committee members and a former general secretary. The two committee members were later suspended.

While Anson said he did not share the views of those executive members who suggested that the British media is at fault for the failed bid, he did question the timing of the investigations.

"My only issue with the Sunday Times and the BBC, more the BBC, was the timing of it. For us it was almost impossible for us to bounce back with three to four weeks to go and then in the last week to actually knowing that FIFA executives were saying to us that our media was killing the bid ... we were in the game and we had to play it with the cards we were dealt," he said.

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