The World

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RB = Roger Blitz, the FT’s sports & leisure correspondent (in Zurich)
DD = Darren Dodd, an FT news editor

RB Fifa will sell this as votes for new frontiers, a la South Africa. The accusation of collusion is dampened by Russia’s victory. For England, going out in the first round only reinforces the argument that when it comes to football politics, England just does not get it.

Simon Gray in France asks: What time of year are they going to play the 2022 World Cup? In July it is about 50C in the shade in Qatar. Players will be dying, literally. Air-conditioned indoor stadiums? I suppose they can afford it.

Robert Orr in New York says not many tears were shed at the bar over the US losing out to Qatar in 2022. Pundits on ESPN, which was at least broadcasting the decision live, were more concerned about how to pronounce the Gulf state’s name. Cat-ar? Quat-ar? They quickly moved on to the  more important matter of Lebron James’ return to Cleveland later this evening…

Michael Kavanagh is back to reading L’Equipe. The site says Russia won despite a “dangerous risk” around transport considering the huge distances between host cities. It predicts that Russian football, already turbocharged by petroroubles, will gain further prominence.

Mark Mulligan in Madrid says: There’s deep disappointment in Madrid, but television commentators are at least conceding that perhaps Spain – and more so Portugal – have bigger issues to deal with at the moment, a reference to the eurozone crisis.

Iberia’s bid was built around quality of football and transport infrastructure, love of the game across the two countries and their natural appeal as tourist destinations.

Also, of course, Spain felt that it deserved to host a World Cup after its fine performance and subsequent victory in this year’s tournament.

HM: And in all Sepp Blatter’s waffle before the announcement, note how he referred to China as the place where football was born. A 2026 bid from Beijing, anyone? Then again, Blatter did call England “the motherland”.

Henry Mance: So Batman – as WikiLeaks had him – will be flying to Zurich after all!

and the 2022 host is…..Qatar

2018 winner is Russia

RB: Blatter talks about importance of football. This must be tortuous to sit through if you’ve lost.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter comes on stage. Announcements coming up.

Hugely glum faces on England faces as Fifa begins the ceremony. They are out in the first round, according to bidding members. Has Fifa punished England for media coverage? Quite probably.

DD: The official announcement is finally beginning

RB: It’s all over for England. Out in the first round.  Just before everyone else says it: They think it’s all over. It is now.

RB: Decision time. Media filing into the hall of the Messe centre in Zurich. Lunch is eaten, votes cast, stomachs churning. Still no clues. Fifa will control this process as tightly as possible. They will not even reveal numbers of votes cast.

DD: A final thought from Europe ahead of the decision.  Michael Kavanagh says: Word just in from my man in Montpellier, whose football club benefited from ground redevelopment for the 1998 World Cup and – after several years in the doldrums – has been riding high in France’s Serie 1.

A scan of L’Equipe shows the French sports paper emphasising Sepp Blatter’s enormous influence in shaping the bidding for both tournaments – and his desire to use the events as a platform to secure a commanding position for  re-election as FIFA’s boss next year.

So will Blatter favour hosts most likely to make the tournaments most economically successful – most likely England and US -  or ones that, like South Africa,  break new ground – meaning Russia, Australia or Qatar? In L’Equipe’s view, any prediction is uncertain.

With France geographically wedged between England and Spain, the logistics of local travel appear to outrank patriotism and home advantage for our Englishman on the Med:

“Here in Castries we are backing Spain/Portugal, with Barcelona just three hours away and Zaragoza as well as the Basque country venues all within reach. Otherwise we are at the mercy of EasyJet and Ryanair,” he says.

DD: Welcome back to the high drama that is the process of choosing who will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.  Gideon Rachman, whose blog we’ve hijacked for the decision,  will be giving his own verdict later today by the way.

DD: We’ll leave you for now and return for the big moment this afternoon around 3pm.

If you fancy a trip to the bookies in the meantime,  my colleague Sean Smith notes that England are now strong favourites to host 2018, with Ladbrokes offering 4/7 on FIFA selecting the FA’s bid.

Long-running favourites Russia have been pushed out to 5/2 after their uninspiring presentation, while Spain and Portugal are third favourites at 7/2. The Belgium and Netherlands – who joint-hosted Euro 2000 – are rank outsiders at 50/1.

RB: The presentations are over. Fifa’s 22 members now sit down for a healthy lunch. In just over three hours time, at 3pm GMT, they will announce their decisions for the 2018 and 2022 races.

In the 2022 presentation stakes on Wednesday, Qatar excelled, the US did poorly and Korea, Japan and Australia were average.

Bill Clinton’s windy and rambling address depressed some members of the US contingent last night, but his benefit will surely have been in the one-to-ones with Fifa members in the evening.

For 2018, England overall shaded it, ahead of  the Dutch/Belgian effort. But the real impact was the speech by Iberian bid president Villar Llona, which is probably what the members will be chewing over most.

Sepp Blatter, Fifa president, will probably be eating less than others in the hours ahead. He will doubtless be whispering here and there in some ears. Victory for Qatar is not what Blatter has in mind.

As for Europe, he is perhaps more relaxed. It’s still impossible to tell, but don’t be surprised if he announces Spain/Portugal for 2018 and the US for 2022.

RB: The “new” Russia, as its big chief executive put it, made its pitch entirely in English. Much of it was spent explaining what the new Russia is – new rail links, new relationships, a new generation of politicians. That was represented in the form of deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov.

Oddly, the bit that was lacking was kind-of old Russia, in the form of prime minister Vladimir Putin who yesterday chose to stay away.  Prime ministers, presidents, emirs and ex-presidents put the case for other bids. Will Fifa treat that as a snub?

This story explains Putin’s decision. It is hard to believe he would have been absent if Russia believed it had a strong chance of winning.  This bid has been most hobbled by the Qatar-Iberian voting pact, which is why he may have not come to Zurich.

Shuvalov ad-libbed about Russia’s tragic history to demonstrate how fast Russia is moving forward, and likened the “brave” choice of South Africa for the 2010 World Cup to its offering. A vote for Russia would be the only one that would make history, he argued.

The curio was handing over part of the presentation to a pole-vaulter. Yelena Isinbayeva may be a multiple Olympic champion, but she had to point out that she also loved football.

Henry Mance, from our beyondbrics blog,  has also been watching the Russian presentation: “People think they know my country, when in reality they don’t… Sometimes there are many stereotypes about Russia, which are not correct.” Could Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov be referring to recent WikiLeaks allegations? In any case, Russian observers seem rather nervous.

RB: Forgive the hyperbole, but this is a fight to the finish. It comes down to whether the 22 men of Fifa close ranks and reward one of their long-standing servants, the Spaniard Villar Llona, or forgive England for any perceived slights caused by British media scrutiny, and embrace its rounded and technically astute offering.

Russia is on stage, minus prime minister Putin and appealing to Fifa’s longstanding sense of new frontierism. Russia has never staged the World Cup, and though neither has Holland/Belgium, it would represent a bold statement to send the tournament there.

Michael Kavanagh from the FT newsroom in London, adds: If fans of England’s traditional football foe – that’s Germany, not Scotland -  were to decide on the winner, then for you, Becks, the bidding war would already be over.

According to a poll by German football magazine Kicker, less than 9 per cent of German football fans want the 2018 World Cup to be hosted by Holland and Belgium, despite the fact that both actually border on Germany.  Just 16 per cent prefer Russia, while 21 prefer the sunny climes of Spain and Portugal. Over half of German football fans polled – 55 per cent – have forgiven 1966 and want the World Cup hosts to be England.

German  fan opinion is even starker on who should host the 2022 World Cup – 50 per cent back Australia – the most remote but perhaps attractive holiday destination – while 27 per cent would be happy to see the USA host the World Cup again. But Qatar’s bid is backed by just 16 per cent while Japan trails badly on 5 per cent, followed by South Korea on a miserable 1.4 per cent.

Could preferred holiday destinations be the key factor for fans? And why not? Meanwhile I am reliably informed that the main concern among the German sports media fraternity is not dissimilar to that in England. ” The angle here is all about FIFA corruption and incompetence,” is the word from my man in Dusseldorf.

DD: Twitter alive with praise for Beckham, who should be either deified or knighted if England pull it off, the view goes.

DD: The Russians are up next.  As Roger reported yesterday, Vladimir Putin isn’t going to grace us with his presence.

RB: England’s slick, if rather lengthy, presentation, saw David Beckham taking centre stage.  David Cameron ad-libbed in Tory party conference style and Prince William made a lame joke about his wedding, but the footballer, in drawing from his family history, stole the show.

The performance emphasised England’s highly-rated stadia and training facilities, its grass roots and, of course, the global scale of the Premier League. Sir Bobby Charlton, the great footballer, revered in world football, got several name-checks. Pretty faultless.

DD: Becks takes us down memory lane and his early days at the Bobby Charlton soccer school before charting the international success of English football.

DD: England really pulling out all the stops. Confident speech by Cameron, followed by the Premiership heavyweights of Wenger, Ferguson et al, all soundtracked by Elbow’s ‘One day like this’. Lots of emphasis on the legacy aspects of hosting the tournament and the proposed ‘Football United’ fund.

RB: After that 15 minutes of Spanish passion, laced with a staunch defence of the integrity of Fifa and a blow at the solar plexus aimed at the “slanderous” British media – and by implication, the England bid – here comes that English bid. In footballing parlance, England are 1-0 down and there’s not much time left.

DD: England up next…We’re awaiting contributions from the Three Lions (c. Sky News) of Cameron, Beckham and Prince William.

RB: The Iberian presentation was plodding, clunky and dated – until an impassioned speech from bid president Ángel María Villar Llona, the man who has been the one-man campaign and is such a brilliant Fifa operator.

This is the man they know so well, and at the end of an address playing to the hearts and minds of the membership, he lays into the British media attacks on the governing body. “You’ve already heard enough slander in the media.”  In the circumstances, that was a pretty powerful and dramatic moment. Earned a hearty round of applause, too

DD: Much of the response on Twitter so far centres on the dullness of the presentations and the last ditch attempt by some Birmingham City and Aston Villa fans last night to show that old-style UK fan participation is still alive and kicking…

RB: Some think these final bid presentations are crucial. Lord Coe, who led the London 2012 bid presentation in Singapore, is not surprisingly, one of them. Others point out that the Fifa members have for months been fully briefed on the technical details of the bids, and that these presentations are largely ceremonial. It is improbable that members will cast their vote on the basis of what they are now witnessing and hearing.

The man on stage at the moment is Miguel Angel Lopez, the managing director of the Iberian bid. He certainly doesn’t believe what he is saying will have any influence on the membership. Last week, he said with confidence that Fifa had already made up its mind. “All the fish are sold,” he told Bloomberg.

The Spain/Portugal campaign has been remarkable for being so low-key as to be almost non-existent. There has been virtually no PR, no set events, and for much of the time it has been a one-man operation, run by bid present Ángel María Villar Llona, albeit one of the most connected figures in football politics.

Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s bid chairman, complained this week that it was “not just” that such a low-key bid could become a frontrunner. He was referring to the Iberian voting pact with Qatar that makes Spain/Portugal such strong 2018 contenders.

The leaders of the two countries, Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates, and Spanish PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, have now made their cases to Fifa, with predictably dull speeches.

Spain and Portugal are now on stage

Intrigue and spite have characterised this bidding process in the past few weeks. Because the 2018 and 2022 races are being run simultaneously, Fifa has unwittingly created space for voting alliances, and a deal between the Fifa members championing the Spanish/Portuguese and Qatar bids has created bad blood in the 22-man membership. This piece in today’s FT explains.

DD: While we wait for the next presentation there’s a great background read on the bid shenanigans from Simon Kuper in the FT magazine.

RB: Holland and Belgium have finished their pitch. Nicely understated, and predictably laid back and humorous, they pushed the proximity of stadia to each other, a World Cup for fans on bikes, and their heritage of very watchable football talent.

There was a nice homage to Guus Hiddink, the Dutchman who has made his mark on the World Cup outside his home country by coaching South Korea and Australia, as well as Holland, in World Cup finals. Still, they remain outsiders.

The Dutch/Belgian presentation offers a variation of the old parlour game, by showing pictures of around 10 famous Dutch/Belgians. There’s even a name-check for Neelie Kroes, which makes them the first in World Cup bidding history to champion a European commissioner. And probably the last.

The five bidders for 2022 made their final presentations yesterday. Now it is the turn of the four 2018 runners – first up is Holland/Belgium, followed by Spain/Portugal, then England and finally Russia.
After lunch, the 22 Fifa executive committee members vote.

Intense lobbying of members went on last night and continued at breakfast this morning. The British are the past masters at this sort of thing, having come from behind in 2005 to grab the 2012 Olympics for London.

Prime minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham have been making England’s case. The US, 2022 bidders, had Bill Clinton and actor Morgan Freeman working the members in his hotel suite. Not much sign of others lobbying for rival bidders.

Holland and Belgium are now presenting to the Fifa members their case. Outsiders for 2018, they brought an oompah band to Zurich and, like Australia, are hoping a bit of light touch and humour contrasts with the more steely, serious offers of their rivals. Dutch football giants Ruud Gullit and Johann Cruyff are on stage.

DD: Welcome to our coverage of the final presentations of the bidders vying to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.  We’re expecting to hear the names of the winners about 3pm this afternoon London time.  In the meantime each country has a final opportunity to impress the Fifa bigwigs.  Now it’s over to our man on the spot, Roger Blitz.