Exclusive: England 2018 Budget Shortfall Plugged by Host Cities in Bid

(WFI) England 2018’s budget shortfall will be made up by contributions from successful applicant host cities.

The World Cup bid team faced a gap of £5 million ($8.2m) in their £15 million bid budget, after the government and the English Premier League refused to provide any direct funding for their campaign.

But bid CEO Andy Anson has revealed that up to £3 million ($5m) of funding for the bid will be secured from applicant host cities that are successful in the FA’s bidding process. Anson said each city has been asked to contribute £250,000 ($411,000) to the England 2018 war-chest if they are chosen when the FA selects its host cities next month.

“From a bid point of view I’m no longer worrying about the financing, the financing’s in place, the bid cities are all contributing to the financing as well,” said Anson.

“We can easily get from the £10million the FA put in in the first place to the £15.5 million we need. That’s not a concern. I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about going out around the world and getting votes and getting the best technical bid.”

Two weeks ago the British government offered England 2018 a £2.5 million loan, which World Football Insider understands the FA are still considering.

“We’re still discussing with the government,” said Anson. “We hope to draw a line soon that we hope will be a positive one.”

Anson: Disputes are in the past
Speaking after England’s 15 applicant host cities had submitted their bids to the 2018 team’s headquarters at Wembley Stadium on Thursday, Anson was ebullient after a rare day of good headlines for his campaign.

He was also forthright about some of the challenges his bid team have faced, not least by the petty squabbles and backbiting among its senior officials, culminating with Premier League chairman Dave Richards’ resignation from the bid board earlier this week.

“I’m not pretending that what’s happened has been helpful; it’s clearly not been helpful,” said Anson. “We have to draw a line in the sand, we have to move on and build on the positive energy.

“All I’ve felt today was the biggest groundswell of positive energy from the cities, the fan groups and all the stakeholders. I think we owe it to them and all the football fans in this country to get on the front foot and get behind this bid.”

Asked about where he felt England’s bid stood, he said that the technical bid was going according to plan.

On the campaign to secure the votes of FIFA’s 24 Executive Committee members, he said: “I’m pretty optimistic about where we are. We’ve met with many of the FIFA executive members on a number of occasions.

"We’ve met them all. We’ve met some of them multiple times. We’ve gone around making formal presentations, including to the heads of confederations. Those meetings have gone extremely well.

“I think the bid is generally getting very positive feedback. Our work on the campaign is well advanced and I’m convinced we have a great chance.”

But Anson insisted he was taking nothing for granted and said that England could still only definitely count on just one vote – that of 2018 bid board member and FIFA vice president Geoff Thompson.

Written by James Corbett
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