Successful Qatar 2022 PR guru Mike Lee has slated England’s attempt to win the 2018 campaign by comparing their bid to “League One standards”.

Lee, who led Qatar to a 14 vote majority over the USA, said that England’s bid, which only attracted two first round votes, was the main reason their campaign failed.

He said: “This England bid campaign was not Premier League, it was relegation and League One. I’m not sure it is healthy to blame everyone else, and not reflect on the campaign itself.”

England’s bid was hit from the early stages as then bid leader Lord Triesman was sacked around six months ago for comments about fellow bidders Spain/Portugal and Russia.

Lee said: “It was clear to everybody that Lord Triesman was not the right choice. He was not popular among his fellow colleagues here in English football. He was terribly unpopular in international football and for nearly 60% of the campaign we were hampered. As you look back from the choice of the wrong bid leader in the first instance through to alienating the Premier League and a series of PR own goals, it has not been a success.”

However, Lee was quick to point out that the likes of David Beckham, Sir Lord Coe and Sir Keith Mills were blameless for the bid. He also had some words of encouragement for bid international president David Dein who Lee believes would make a fantastic FA chairman.

He added: “This is an opportunity to appoint someone who knows the game at both club and national team level and also has experience of the international football environment. In my view David Dein does have all of those credentials and I do think he would make an ideal candidate.”