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David Beckham Backs England's World Cup Bid
English football's global poster boy has given his blessing to the country's bid to bring the World Cup back to the cradle of the game.
May 18, 2009 3:34:11 PM
David Beckham today spoke in enthusiastic and glowing terms about the benefits he felt would be brought to both English football and the country as whole, should the bid launched today to host the 2018 World Cup be successful.
"It would be up there with winning and the success I've had in my career because to be part of a successful bid, like I was with the Olympics, would be a huge honor," he told reporters in front of the Sky Sports News cameras.
"There is a lot of hard work to be done. There is politics in all different sports throughout the world and I know how difficult it was getting the Olympics to our country. The World Cup is a different ball game. It will be difficult, there will be hard work and lots of ups and downs along the way but the end result is the most important thing. If we get what we want and get the World Cup to our country it will be fantastic."
He also opined that England, in turn, would be good for the World Cup, with the passion of supporters here guaranteeing that the tournament would be taken to the hearts of the people, something that clearly didn't happen in Austria and Switzerland during last summer's European Championship.
"From speaking to many players that I've played with, and I've played with some of the biggest and best in the world, all they talk about is the passion and atmosphere that is shown at England games and games against teams from England.
"Every time I've played abroad with world class players like Zinedine Zidane or Ronaldo the first thing they've asked is what it's like to play in England and say how much they like that passion the fans have here,"
"It's different here, without a doubt. The passion doesn't just stop at the Premier League, it goes through grass roots and goes through Sunday League football. It goes right from the bottom to the top and shows the passion we have for football.
"When we stage big competitions it shows around the country , the people get excited. If you drive around London during Wimbledon you'll see people in the parks playing tennis everywhere. In the Rugby World Cup if you drive around the city you'd see the St George flag and everyone wanting to play rugby.
"In Euro 96 I wasn't involved in that so I was a supporter and I was cheering England on and again you could see the passion of the fans.You saw players like Gazza score the goals that he did and the passion we showed, from the fans and the players."
And the way in which the English love sport and big events, generating wider involvement and appeal, really seemed to be the clinching factor in the mind of the Milan midfielder, as he concluded, "As a country we're renowned for getting excited about big events, there's no country in the world that can compare with us."
Zack Wilson, Goal.com
"It would be up there with winning and the success I've had in my career because to be part of a successful bid, like I was with the Olympics, would be a huge honor," he told reporters in front of the Sky Sports News cameras.
"There is a lot of hard work to be done. There is politics in all different sports throughout the world and I know how difficult it was getting the Olympics to our country. The World Cup is a different ball game. It will be difficult, there will be hard work and lots of ups and downs along the way but the end result is the most important thing. If we get what we want and get the World Cup to our country it will be fantastic."
He also opined that England, in turn, would be good for the World Cup, with the passion of supporters here guaranteeing that the tournament would be taken to the hearts of the people, something that clearly didn't happen in Austria and Switzerland during last summer's European Championship.
"From speaking to many players that I've played with, and I've played with some of the biggest and best in the world, all they talk about is the passion and atmosphere that is shown at England games and games against teams from England.
"Every time I've played abroad with world class players like Zinedine Zidane or Ronaldo the first thing they've asked is what it's like to play in England and say how much they like that passion the fans have here,"
"It's different here, without a doubt. The passion doesn't just stop at the Premier League, it goes through grass roots and goes through Sunday League football. It goes right from the bottom to the top and shows the passion we have for football.
"When we stage big competitions it shows around the country , the people get excited. If you drive around London during Wimbledon you'll see people in the parks playing tennis everywhere. In the Rugby World Cup if you drive around the city you'd see the St George flag and everyone wanting to play rugby.
"In Euro 96 I wasn't involved in that so I was a supporter and I was cheering England on and again you could see the passion of the fans.You saw players like Gazza score the goals that he did and the passion we showed, from the fans and the players."
And the way in which the English love sport and big events, generating wider involvement and appeal, really seemed to be the clinching factor in the mind of the Milan midfielder, as he concluded, "As a country we're renowned for getting excited about big events, there's no country in the world that can compare with us."
Zack Wilson, Goal.com
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