WE INVENTED FOOTBALL, GREG, USE IT...

GREG CLARKE, the Football Association chairman, is doing the rounds of FIFA member countries trying to gauge support for another England World Cup bid in 2030. Why bother? The case for England to host in World Cup centenary year is so flawed, it is surely doomed. When the World Cup began, the FA wanted no part of it. They were not even members of FIFA, having resigned in 1928. Other countries travelled across continents from Europe, but England stayed apart and remained that way until 1950. The move to 48 qualifying countries has greatly limited the hosting options, but if FIFA are moved to acknowledge the history of their competition, a nod to the original hosts would surely be appropriate, with Uruguay staging at least some of the tournament, in partnership with Argentina or other South American nations. Technically, 2030 is Europe’s turn, but one of the four European nations that made the original journey — France, Belgium and Romania, although Yugoslavia no longer exist — have a greater claim than England. The irony is that Clarke’s mission statement as he begins his latest round of global glad-handing appears to rule out his best line of attack. ‘We are building bridges,’ he said, ‘we are showing that we are not standoffish, noses in the air, we invented football. The sort of stuff that we have a reputation for.’ Yet that is about England’s only case for hosting in 2030. We have good stadiums, good transport links, and decent infrastructure, but so do a lot of countries. We invented football — that is something the others haven’t got. Clarke thinks it makes us arrogant to say so, but whether we joined in at the time or not, without us, our leagues, our public school law makers, our codified rulebooks, no World Cup and no FIFA could have existed. Yet the one card Clarke will not play — England as the birthplace of the game, and therefore indirectly of its most famous tournament — is actually the trump in his hand. Without it, we have about as much right to host as Slovenia.