England hosted the 1966 FIFA World Cup and, had the campaign been successful, would have become the fourth nation to host the World Cup for a second time. The country had also hosted Euro 96 and unsuccessfully attempted to host the 1990 and 1998 World Cups.
In 1993, the chairman of the Football Association (the FA), Bert Millichip and his German counterpart agreed that the FA would back Germany's bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and that Germany would support England's Euro 96 bid. Both bids were ultimately successful. By 1996, England had withdrawn its support for the Germany bid and decided to make their own bid, losing the support of UEFA president Lennart Johansson in the process. As a result, England put its support behind Sepp Blatter in 1998, rather than rival Johansson, for the FIFA presidency. Blatter had, however, already publicly supported South Africa's bid.
The FA went on to make a series of misinformed decisions to the detriment of the bid. This included FA chief executive Graham Kelly and chairman Keith Wiseman unsuccessfully attempting to remove the Scottish Football Association's David Will from the FIFA executive and replace him with Wiseman, culminating in both Kelly and Wiseman being removed from their posts. The FA, mindful of Thailand's vote on the 24-man executive, offered the Thailand national football team the services of Peter Withe as head coach.
In 1999, England arranged a friendly with Malta before Euro 2000, securing England a vote. Later that year, Blatter reaffirmed his support for South Africa, despite a visit from British prime ministerTony Blair.
In April 1999, Bobby Charlton announced that as part of the bid, a dozen children from each of the 203 FIFA-affiliated nations would be guests of the FA during the tournament.[6]
Shortly before the 2000 UEFA Cup Final between English club Arsenal and Turkish side Galatasaray, there were clashes between British and Turkish fans. As well as Arsenal fans, it was reported that followers of English clubs Chelsea and Leeds United, as well as Scottish side Rangers and Welsh teams Cardiff City and Swansea City, had travelled to Copenhagen to engage with the Turks.[12] This incident shocked UEFA deeply.[13] These concerns intensified during Euro 2000, as there were hooligan riots caused by England fans and UEFA's stance against the English bid hardened as a result.[14]
On 3 July 2000, Brazil withdrew its bid and pledged support for South Africa's. On the same day, the English bid was criticised by FIFA for the way in which it was conducted.[15]
On 5 July, the countries made their final presentations to FIFA.
Results
The vote–undertaken in Zürich, Switzerland–took the instant-runoff voting format, where the lowest-placed nation is eliminated and their votes reassigned to their marked second preference, this process continuing for as many rounds as required for two nations to remain.[16]
Results
Nation
Vote
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Germany
10
11
12
South Africa
6
11
11
England
5
2
Eliminated
Morocco
2
Eliminated
Eliminated
Total votes
23
24
23
New Zealander Charlie Dempsey voted for England in both of the first two rounds, electing to abstain from the final round; Channel 4 News would name him as one of many to receive notes offering presents from members of bidding nations.[17] David Will was the other man to back England twice. The three first-round English votes came from Central America.[18]
Reaction
Andy Anson, the chief executive of the 2018 FIFA World Cup bid, called for humility with England's bid claiming they "must not fall victim to arrogance" and that lessons had been learned from the unsuccessful attempt to host the 2006 competition. Anson stated that "the tone of this campaign has to be different.[19]
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