A senior member of the England World Cup 2018 bid committee says the England bid to host the 2018 tournament has been “significantly harmed” by the Sunday Times investigation into the biddingprocess that resulted in the suspension of two FIFA executive committee members.
England World Cup 2018 bidders are concerned that more revelations — including a potential Panoramaprogram on the BBC — could be fatal to their effort.
“The question is: can we recover from this? Fifa members feel they are being persecuted by the British media,” said a source. “Itisn’t dead and the next two or three weeks will be delicate but England’s bid has been damaged and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to repair that damage.”