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The English FA's latest accounts have revealed that England's failed bid for the 2018 World Cup cost much more than originally thought.
The investment was reported to be €17.2 million over a span of two years, but latest financial figures reveal the actual cost to be around €24 million.
England's bid received just two votes, one of which came from British Fifa vice-president Geoff Thompson with Russia winning the right to host the tournament.
British sports minister Hugh Robertson claimed last week that it seemed England's bid was doomed from the start.
“When I look back on it now, I wish we had the gumption or the knowledge to realise at a very early stage that Fifa wanted something fundamentally different than what we were putting on the table," he said.
"We were saying we could run the best possible football tournament and the evaluation commission ruled we had the best technical bid.
"The problem was that wasn't what Fifa wanted. They wanted the opportunity to take the next World Cups to markets they had not penetrated in any way before, so actually it did not matter how good our bid was, we were never in the game at all.
"I wish we had had the foresight or the knowledge to appreciate that earlier. We produced the best technical bid of the lot, and it attracted one other vote apart from our own. Nobody in football, or in the government, could be happy about a bidding process that produced that outcome."
Written by Nikunj Merchant
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