If Football Federation Australia hoped it had FIFA vice president Jack Warner on side for its World Cup bid, it may need to think again.
Warner has performed an about turn about England’s 2018 bid, having previously dismissed it as lightweight, and now says “this is England’s time”.
The CONCACAF president is also reportedly supporting the United States’ bid for 2022.
Warner, a powerful member of the 24-man FIFA executive committee which will decide the 2018 and 2022 hosts in December 2010, raised spirits earlier this month with his positive comments when declaring Australia an “excellent chance”.
“If there is a country that truly deserves to host the FIFA World Cup, then it is the island continent of Australia,” Warner said in Nigeria two weeks ago.
Warner then met with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the sidelines of the Commonwealth summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad at the end of last week.
They discussed Australia’s World Cup bid for 2018 and 2022 and the government’s support for it.
But it seems British Prime Minister Gordon Brown really caught Warner’s ear in a similar meeting about England’s bid.
“It was an exceptionally good meeting – it was the best case I have heard for a long time about the World Cup being in England,” Warner said on Saturday.
“I was very impressed by his humility, his sincerity, his knowledge of the game and most importantly he didn’t feel England had any divine right. He felt that England’s time had come – a point to which I subscribed.
“He said, and I agreed with him, that England has the best infrastructure to stage the tournament and that, after a 52-year gap, this is England’s time.”
Warner’s comments are in stark contrast to what he said during a speech at the Leaders in Football conference when England’s bid leaders were panicked by the CONCACAF president’s withering assessment of their hopes.
“I was attempting to be constructive and I am sorry if people thought I was being destructive,” Warner said. “But I was looking at the bigger picture and the bid seems to have new energy and impetus.”
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