Clarke’s Fifa tour may lead to bid for 2030 World Cup

The chairman of the Football Association was last night planning a global tour of Fifa members in a move that could lay the foundations for an England bid for the 2030 World Cup.

Having spent part of his first 15 months as head of the FA visiting European member associations to rebuild relationships that had been allowed to lapse under previous regimes, Greg Clarke is set to extend that in the coming years to Africa and Asia.

The FA has made no decision over bidding for the 2030 World Cup but Clarke’s charm offensive – which has so far seen him visit almost two-thirds of Uefa’s 55 members – can only boost its chances of success if it threw its hat in the ring for that or the 2028 or 2032 European Championship.

A similar trip to meet county FAS helped Clarke succeed where his three immediate predecessors had failed by securing support for long-overdue reforms to the governing body.

The FA has twice been humiliated this century when trying to land the 2006 and 2018 World Cups, wasting millions on bids it now appears were doomed from the outset.

Getting Uefa members on board would be a first step towards preparing an England bid, with the organisation’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, revealing there will be only a single European bid for the 2030 tournament, declaring it was the continent’s “turn” to stage it.