And so it came to pass that our bid was the big-time loser, garnering a single measly vote, aside from our own, of the 22 on offer. Was it The Sunday Times and Panorama exposes that lost it for England?
If so, there was little triumphalism from either.
In a curiously convoluted twist of post-rationalisation PR, it was the defeated bid team whose post-match statements seemed most to endorse the media's claims of FIFA fixing and corruption. Implicit in statements made by England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson and his bid team was that England should never take part in such a process again until FIFA was reformed.
There were even leaks from a private dinner party suggesting that the bid team had known all along that many FIFA delegates were 'buyable'. To which both The Sunday Times and Panorama may well have responded with a terrace chant of 'we told you so'.
What is undeniable is that the glut of post-event whingeing has, to the glee of many, given a massively undignified boost to England's reputation as a bad loser.
For this reason alone, a period of silent reflection from the FA and the bid team would be welcome.
Prime ministers and future kings should realise there are greater passions and philosophies before which to prostrate themselves than football.
Boris Johnson won popular plaudits for his withdrawal of the offer of free accommodation at The Dorchester for the FIFA team during the 2012 Olympics. But why was the original offer made anyway if not as an inducement to vote for England?
The truth is that there should have been little surprise in the FIFA machinations.
England was outplayed in a game in which it pretty much knew the rules.
If it did not approve of them, it would have been better PR to withdraw or at least ask searching questions when the media exposed their findings.
This whingefest does us no credit.
- Ian Monk is founder of Ian Monk Associates and a former executive at the Daily Mail and The Sun.
