World Cup 2018: Fifa sticks together and damns the British media

FIFA executive committee members confirmed tonight that the lingering backlash against the British media following explosive corruption allegations had counted against England and contributed to the bid team's humiliating defeat in the race to host the 2018 World Cup.

As details about the closed‑door discussions at yesterday's Fifa executive committee meeting that preceded the first bout of bid presentations began to leak out, it emerged that England's rivals and the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, had continued to use the issue as a stick to beat them.

Blatter, who backed Russia in a bid to stop the Spain/Portugal and Qatar double that he believed would be catastrophic for his re-election chances and further undermine Fifa's credibility, is understood to have mentioned the damage done to the organisation by the Sunday Times and the BBC.

Angel María Villar Llona, the Spanish executive committee member, went further and rammed the point home. He later returned to the theme in his presentation, declaring: "I love Fifa dearly but those I love the most are my colleagues in the exco. Recently we have been criticised by many media outlets. Unfortunately for them Fifa is a clean institution."

Chuck Blazer, the USA Fifa executive committee member, said: "It didn't create a positive environment for the England bid but it's difficult to get into the minds of other people and know if it really was a factor."

England's bid team went to bed last night confident they had done enough to secure the votes of "more than six" executive committee members. They were believed to be nailed‑on pledges, rather than hoped‑for votes.

Nipping in and out of their suite at the Baur au Lac hotel and full of nervous energy, the prime minister, David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham conducted a marathon lobbying session during which they saw 20 of the 22 voters.

The next day, they were being told that following a presentation that was the most compelling of the nine offered up to the Fifa executive committee, more votes may have swung their way.

So there was shock and disbelief in their eyes as they filed into the auditorium to be told by England's one executive committee member, Geoff Thompson, that they had polled just one vote other than his, which came from Issa Hayatou, the Cameroonian head of the African confederation. The extent to which their strategy was left in tatters was emphasised by the fact that neither Thompson nor any other member of the bid team appeared to know who else had voted for them.

Andy Anson, the likeable 2018 bid leader, insisted that they were "not naive" and knew "everything that was going on in the world" as they constructed their campaign and targeted individual voters.

Millions of pounds and thousands of hours of flying have been devoted to wooing the 24 (who became 22) men who held England's fate in their hands. In the end, it yielded just one vote.

What went wrong? Everything. The strategy to deliver Jack Warner, the controversial Concacaf president who throughout the two‑year bidding process had successfully made England dance to his tune, failed.

The visit to Trinidad by the former prime minister Gordon Brown, the overtures of his successor Cameron, the Beckham coaching clinics and the meetings with the future king all counted for nothing.

Instead Warner, who had insisted that the BBC Panorama programme that accused him of arranging ticket touting would not affect his vote, and his two Concacaf colleagues backed Russia.

Senes Erzik, from Turkey, who England also thought they had in the bag, also deserted them.

Nor was there sufficient support from the African delegates so actively courted by England in the hope that historical investment in football development and support for Hayatou's failed attempt to topple Blatter in 2002 would reap rewards.

"I do feel that some people let us down," said Anson. "Yeah, I would be lying if I said they didn't let us down. Clearly people who promised us their vote didn't vote for us. I honestly felt that we had enough comfort, enough people, enough room to hope that things would go all right and we would go through the first round."

In the immediate aftermath of the humiliation, none of the England bid team wanted to go too far in analysing the reasons why they got it so badly wrong.

Calls for the bidding process to be overhauled to expand the electorate and make it more transparent will no doubt follow.

However, the mood towards the British press, from which the bid was so keen to distance itself as it lobbied the BBC over the Panorama investigation and wrote a letter to the executive committee in which it paid tribute to the two suspended executive committee members as "friends", appeared to have shifted.

Beckham said tonight: "I have heard the rumours that we lost due to the British press. I hope that isn't the reason. I believe in a free press and they are incredibly supportive of the game I love.

"Despite the impressive efforts of Team England, supporters will be bitterly disappointed at England's failure to land the 2018 World Cup."

Back home, and away from the shadow of Fifa, the recriminations went further. The shadow sports secretary, Ivan Lewis, called for an independent root‑and‑branch inquiry.

"This follows on from the England team's poor performance in South Africa," Lewis said. "Serious questions have to be answered as to how we can learn lessons from these significant setbacks to build a better future.

"The coalition and the football authorities should now set up an independent root and branch inquiry into all aspects of how our national game is run."