England for 2018 alone

Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick has ruled out England's bid for the 2018 World Cup involving any of the other home nations.

Barwick confirmed the bid would be exclusively English, saying: "We know other countries want to host the World Cup in 2018 and it is not a given but we will give it our best shot."

He added: "There are a lot of things to work through ahead of us and we have to have the leadership of this campaign absolutely spot on.

"We know that will tax us in the next few months.

"There are lots of good messages about English football across the world - both from on the pitch and away from the pitch with coaching, refereeing and business education programmes.

"We think we should seize the moment. We have government support, Sepp Blatter is very positive about English football, and on Tuesday Franz Beckenbauer said he thought 2018 should be in this country.

"But there is no complacency whatsoever and no arrogance."