申办世界杯失利 英国冷脸对待俄罗斯

England’s humiliating defeat in the race to host the 2018 World Cup sparked a bitter new ‘Cold War’ with Russia.

2018年世界杯主办国揭晓，英格兰的耻辱性惨败使其对赢家俄罗斯的态度如同新一轮“冷战”。

The £15million bid –spearheaded（带头，先锋） by David ­Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham – didn’t even get past the first round.

It secured just two of the 22 votes by committee members of football’s world governing body Fifa in a secret ballot¹ – one of which was cast by England’s own FA chairman Geoff Thompson.

Amid strong suspicions of shady backroom deals, the tournament went to Russia.

Last night Downing Street did little to hide its anger and said Mr Cameron had no plans to congratulate the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin personally ‘at the present time’.

Shortly after Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared Russia the winner for 2018, he announced that Qatar, a tiny desert country which has never even qualified² to play in the World Cup, would host the 2022 tournament, beating bids from Australia, the United States and a joint³ bid from Japan and South Korea.

Fifa’s controversial decisions reinforced（加强） suspicions that the voting process was corrupt⁴ and that the sport’s world governing body had been seduced⁵（引诱，怂恿） by the energy-rich countries’ billions, meaning that England’s bid never stood a chance（有希望） .

A ‘bitterly disappointed’ and visibly furious Mr Cameron said England had the best technical bid and what he believed was the strongest commercial bid, adding: ‘It turns out that’s not enough.’

Asked what more England could have done to secure the tournament, the Prime Minister replied: ‘I think that’s for others to say.’

When Mr Cameron met Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he had challenged him to a ‘good clean fight’ but last night the Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to say the voting process was either good or clean.

Number 10 aides were furious with the outcome after Mr Cameron had made two flying visits to Zurich where the vote was held and been up into the small hours yesterday frantically⁶（疯狂地） lobbying for crucial votes.

So committed was the Government to win the bid that Mr Blatter was even allowed to hold Mr Cameron’s baby daughter Florence when he visited Downing Street recently.

But despite three days of intense lobbying in Zurich by the Three Lions, the England bid team feared they had been damaged by a backlash（后座，反冲） against corruption⁷ investigations⁸ into Fifa members by BBC’s Panorama⁹ and the Sunday Times.