England’s Beckham woos and wows in World Cup bid

England star David Beckham struck a positive note about the bid’s chances of hosting the 2018 World Cup on Wednesday after he wooed top FIFA officials with heavyweight backing late into the night.

After wowing the locals in Zurich and blushing at a question about his “beauty”, the 35-year-old vice president of the England 2018 bid said he would meet “one or two” more FIFA executive committee members before they decide on the hosts on Thursday.

“It’s just the icing on everything we’ve done so far,” Beckham told journalists after he joined British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William in meeting FIFA grandees late into the night and in the early hours of the morning.

“I know that Prince William was up at 7.30 having breakfast with one of the members,” Beckham pointed out, just a day before FIFA’s executive committee votes on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

“We’ve met them, everything has been positive so far, we’ve obviously listened to the feedback and their ideas and what we need to be pushing in the next couple of days,” he added.

Beckham compared the impact of the active top government backing to London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, which was widely regarded as having won a tight race thanks to then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s lobbying at the decisive Olympic meeting in Singapore.

After a wave of corruption allegations hit world football’s governing body in recent weeks and allegations of collusion, doubts have been raised about the weight of the sporting or economic merits in the voting.

“I think we can trust every one of the members,” Beckham said, referring to FIFA’s executive committee.

“At the end of the day they’re football people. They’re going to want a World Cup in the best country that they think could host the biggest sporting event in the world. So without a doubt we can trust them.”

“If we get this then we’ll have deserved it because we’ve worked hard for it, we’ve got a great presentation. And in England we love the game,” Beckham concluded.

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star wowed Swiss teenagers by turning up at a school in Zurich on Thursday, in a carefully orchestrated appearance that nonetheless set a few hearts beating as he held a coaching session and signed autographs.

“‘Oh my god!’ I thought when I saw him,” a girl at Liguster school told the daily Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, as everyone donned England bid teeshirts and the “world class star” impressed the gym teacher.

Beckham told Swiss television SF1: “I enjoy being with children, they’ve got so much energy. I wish I had my sports gear with me, I could have played better.”

But as he turned up for the press conference on Thursday in a dapper but tight cut blue suit, he was clearly thrown by a question from a local journalist about how he kept up his “beauty”.

“I don’t know — having three boys to chase, that keeps me fit. My god, you’ve got me flustered,” the Los Angeles Galaxy player said.

England, Russia and joint bids from Spain and Portugal and Holland and Belgium are competing for the 2018 World Cup, while Australia, the United States, Qatar, Japan and South Korea are bidding for the 2022 tournament.