Press release

Number 10 Press Briefing - Afternoon From 2 December 2010

From the Prime Minister's spokesperson on: World Cup and weather.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

World Cup

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that the Prime Minister was bitterly disappointed with the outcome of the 2018 World Cup bid. He still felt that we had an incredibly strong bid, and that we threw everything we had at securing the World Cup, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

Asked if the Prime Minister felt we had the strongest bid, the PMS said that we had always felt that we had an incredibly strong bid, and obviously we thought that we had the best bid.

Asked why the Prime Minister thought we didn’t win, the PMS said that we were not going to drawn into reasons why we didn’t win. The entire bid team gave 100% to try and secure the World Cup but it wasn’t to be.

Put that the Prime Minister had not wanted the Panorama to run their programme on the bid process and asked if he thought the programme had had a detrimental effect, the PMS said that their was nothing to add to what the Prime Minister had already said.

Asked if there would be an inquiry into why we didn’t win, the PMS said that he didn’t think it would make a difference to the outcome.

Asked when the Prime Minister thought things were going wrong, the PMS said that, as he had said yesterday, we were in fight, which was why the Prime Minister went to Zurich. We always knew it was going to be incredibly tough and we did all we could to secure the bid.

Asked if the Prime Minister was happy with how the decision had been made, the PMS said that it was a long-established process.

Asked if the Prime Minister was happy that the process the PMS said that he would not get drawn into analysis of exactly what happened; we did our best.

Asked if the Prime Minister had congratulated President Putin, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had been in meetings since he got back to Downing Street, but we obviously congratulated Russia on a successful bid.

Asked when the Prime Minister found out we had lost the bid, the PMS said that he started getting reports that we’d lost in the car on the way back to Downing Street from the airport.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought it was right to go to Zurich, the PMS said that it was the right thing to do. The Prime Minister had spent a considerable amount of time on the bid over the past months. He had used all the opportunities available to push the English bid.

Cold weather

Asked if the Prime Minister was satisfied that we were doing all we could to keep things going in the bad weather, the PMS said that we had been working on plans for several months and we were more resilient than we were this time last year.

Published 2 December 2010