Brady joins England 2018 bid board
Former Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady and ex Chelsea defender Paul Elliot have joined the England 2018 World Cup bid as a non executive directors.
The pair succeed Baroness Amos who we told you yesterday would be stepping down from her role in the bid.
Brady, who recently stepped down from Birmingham after Carson Yeung’s takeover, said: “I am very aware how much a World Cup in England would mean to the public. I feel my background in football, business and the media gives me a unique position which will enable me to create a strong link between business and football.”
Former Chelsea defender Elliot added: “England’s World Cup bid to FIFA will promote exclusivity and embrace all areas of the global footbal family, irrespective of race, gender and sexual orientation.”
Bid leader Lord Triesman was delighted to welcome the two new additions on board. He said: “Karren’s record in football and business speaks for itself and the board shares my belief that she will make a tremendous contribution to the 2018 bid. Paul’s experience as a professional footballer as well as campaigner for grassroots, mean he is highly regarded in the corridors of FIFA and UEFA.”
However, Lord Ouseley, the chairman of Kick It Out, warned Triesman that the appointments must be a stepping stone to greater equality within English football. He said “The important stepping stone for the 2018 board is to recognise that having crossed that threshold, they have nothing to fear from diversity.”
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I don’t think Britain has to prove anything to the world where diversity is concerned in football. Our game is now graced by enormous numbers of players from around the globe, many of the best of them with very dark skins.
I hope Mr Elliott has been hired solely for his competence and that, in carrying out his job, he will help England win the tournament staging rights.
I don’t think Ms Brady has to prove anything to anyone. She’s run a football club for 16 years, a club which lived within its means and progressed steadily and organically. What she needs is a significant role, which might, for example, be involved in evaluating the competing claims of different candidate cities.
David Dein should be sent around the footballing world like Seb Coe jetted the world for the Olympics bid. If that’s what he’d like to do. He knows how to sign players, now he needs to get our head to the ground to work out how to sign up delegates. I suspect he’ll be jolly good at it. And I’m sure he’ll be able to wheel out the great and good, the famous and the superstars, as needed and suggested by Jack Warner.
Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg need to agree that they will work together on this one no matter what happens in the General Election. If they’re sensible, they’ll bring in some heavyweights from City Councils like Sir Howard Bernstein or Richard Leese who knows how to help win a bid, knows about staging a Champions League final and knows the implications for a city of doing so.
The most important thing here is setting the difference between an England 2018 bid and a summer show for the Premier League. The Premier League are important PARTNERS in this, but it’s not just about them. Their grounds will be used and they will be both rewarded and showcased through that, but it is for the whole country, including those bits which don’t have matches in their region.
And in that regard, it might be a good idea for places like Ipswich and Norwich to be suggested as training camps before the tournament, as they have: great grounds, nice weather, friendly people and easy access to London.