Two votes out of Twenty-two. Why?

Maybe it's bias, but why on earth were England not awarded the FIFA World Cup 2018?

This is a country with possibly the richest football tradition on the planet, terrific infrastructure, transport links and a prime location relative to other countries that would travel to watch games.

The stadia are state-of-the-art and the people of the capital city, London, will have experience of hosting a massive global sporting event when the Olympics come calling in 2012. Also, English football fans have a style and a charisma that they can call their own, with singing, chanting and banter playing a huge part in adding to the atmosphere at matches.

Granted, they have held the honour of hosting the World Cup before, but by 2018 nobody under the age of fifty-five will remember '66 and football has immeasurably changed since then. Euro '96 was the last footballing event to be held there and it was a great success with average attendances of over 40,000 per game.

The English bid seemed to have everything going for it. David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham provided the promises and the profile that no other bidding nation could.

Yet, in the first round of voting, England were eliminated with just two votes out of twenty-two. Why?

Could it possibly be that the men (I don't recall seeing any women in charge of votes) in control of the votes were so angered by The Sunday Times' and the BBC Panorama programme's investigations into corruption that England's bid was blacklisted?

Their reasoning could be put down to the sensationalistic nature of Britain's tabloid media, but that excuse is flimsy at best.

Yes, the tabloids are ruthless and can be damaging, but even they know that hosting the World Cup would have been a massive achievement and a huge event for the entire country.

What The Sunday Times revealed is that some of the people in charge of votes were open to giving up their vote in the name of financial gain and what Panorama exposed is that some of the other people with the same authority have taken payments in the past.

Where does that leave this vote and the goodwill in which it was done? Was Russia truly the correct venue to choose over England, or over Portugal and Spain?

Maybe it was, and maybe 2018 will be the greatest World Cup of all time, but this vote has left a bad taste in the mouth and sullies all of the hard work that was put into the bidding process by England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Holland.

As an Irishman, why would I want the English to host the World Cup? Simples; cheap travel across the Irish Sea to see history and the possibility of some superstars visiting Ireland to train.

But alas, my preference only received less than a tenth of the vote.

Now, do Ryanair fly to Moscow? I'd best apply for my visa now!