英國申辦世界盃失利 給贏家俄羅斯冷臉
England’s humiliating defeat in the race to host the 2018 World Cupsparked a bitter new ‘Cold War’ with Russia last night.
The £15million bid –spearheaded by David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham – didn’t even get past the first round.
It secured just two of the 22 votes by committee members of football’s world governing body Fifa in a secret ballot – one of which was cast by England’s own FA chairman Geoff Thompson.
Amid strong suspicions of shady backroom deals, the tournament went to Russia.
Last night Downing Street did little to hide its anger and said Mr Cameron had no plans to congratulate the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin personally ‘at the present time’.
Shortly after Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared Russia the winner for 2018, he announced that Qatar, a tiny desert country which has never even qualified to play in the World Cup, would host the 2022 tournament, beating bids from Australia, the United States and a joint bid from Japan and South Korea.
Fifa’s controversial decisions reinforced suspicions that the voting process was corrupt and that the sport’s world governing body had been seduced by the energy-rich countries’ billions, meaning that England’s bid never stood a chance.
A ‘bitterly disappointed’ and visibly furious Mr Cameron said England had the best technical bid and what he believed was the strongest commercial bid, adding: ‘It turns out that’s not enough.’
Asked what more England could have done to secure the tournament, the Prime Minister replied: ‘I think that’s for others to say.’
When Mr Cameron met Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he had challenged him to a ‘good clean fight’ but last night the Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to say the voting process was either good or clean.
Number 10 aides were furious with the outcome after Mr Cameron had made two flying visits to Zurich where the vote was held and been up into the small hours yesterday frantically lobbying for crucial votes.
So committed was the Government to win the bid that Mr Blatter was even allowed to hold Mr Cameron’s baby daughter Florence when he visited Downing Street recently.
But despite three days of intense lobbying in Zurich by the Three Lions, the England bid team feared they had been damaged by a backlash against corruption investigations into Fifa members by BBC’s Panorama and the Sunday Times.
2018年世界盃主辦國昨晚揭曉，英格蘭的恥辱性慘敗使其對贏家俄羅斯的態度如同新一輪“冷戰”。
英格蘭此次申辦耗資1500萬英鎊，由英國首相大衛•卡梅倫、威廉王子和大衛•貝克漢姆打先鋒，但首輪投票便慘遭淘汰。
在世界足壇主管機構國際足聯舉行的22名委員無記名投票中，英格蘭僅收穫兩票，其中一票還來自自家人、英國足協主席傑夫•湯普森。
在有關非法幕後交易的強烈質疑聲中，2018年世界盃主辦權花落俄羅斯。
唐寧街昨晚並未掩飾自己的憤怒，表示“在這個時候”卡梅倫個人並不打算向俄總理弗拉基米爾•普京道賀。
國際足聯主席塞普•布拉特昨晚先後宣佈俄羅斯、卡塔爾分獲2018年、2022年世界盃主辦權。沙漠小國卡塔爾從未打進過世界盃決賽圈，澳大利亞、美國、聯合申辦國日韓紛紛落敗。
國際足聯富有爭議的決定讓人更加懷疑投票過程存在腐敗行爲，以及該全球足壇主管機構收受了某些能源富有國家的鉅額賄賂，這些都意味着英格蘭根本沒有機會勝出。
“心寒”而且顯然很惱怒的卡梅倫表示，英格蘭申辦的技術條件和經濟支持都是最好的。但他補充說：“原來，這還不夠。”
在被問及英格蘭還需要在哪些方面努力才能勝出時，他回答道：“這你得問別人了。”
卡梅倫會晤俄羅斯總統德米特里•梅德韋傑夫時，曾表示要和他在這場“高水平的公平競爭”中比比看，但昨晚卡梅倫的官方發言人拒絕評價投票過程是否是“高水平”或者“公平的”。
卡梅倫的助手們對投票結果非常憤怒。卡梅倫曾兩次飛抵投票地蘇黎世，爲了向握有關鍵選票的委員遊說，昨天一直熬到凌晨。
英國政府方面爲了申辦成功也非常努力，甚至在布拉特最近到訪英國的時侯，還讓他抱了抱卡梅倫剛出世不久的女兒佛羅倫斯。
儘管“三獅軍團”在蘇黎世鉚足勁拉了三天票，英國申辦團還是擔心他們的努力被英國廣播公司的《全景》欄目和《星期日泰晤士報》給毀了。上述兩家媒體報道了針對國際足聯委員展開的腐敗調查。
Vocabulary:
spearhead:to lead or initiate an attack, a campaign, etc.（充當先鋒，帶頭做）
stand a chance: show, to have a chance or possibility, esp. of winning or surviving（有可能，有機會）
small hours: hours after midnight; early morning hours（午夜以後，凌晨）
Three Lions: 三獅軍團，英格蘭足球隊的別稱
