England 2018 chiefs fear corruption claims have 'significantly damaged' bid

Bid leaders already admit that the recent Sunday Times investigation into FIFA members has caused "significant damage" to their campaign for 2018, and are worried the Panorama programme will intensify the backlash against them.

Although England 2018 refused to confirm the visit, it is understood bid chief executive Andy Anson visited Thompson this week to detail the likely implications of the Panorama investigation being screened, but was told the programme could not be blocked.

A number of FIFA executive committee members were confronted by Panorama investigators last week in Zurich, causing annoyance among the world governing body's top brass.

FIFA have suspended two of their executive committee members, Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii, pending an ethics committee hearing after allegations in the Sunday Times that they asked for money for projects in return for World Cup votes. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Evidence of a possible backlash by FIFA members was revealed this week when Mohamed Bin Hammam, the president of the Asian confederation and one of the 24-man executive committee who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts, condemned the Sunday Times investigation as "unethical".

A senior England 2018 source said today: "This has significantly damaged England's bid because the FIFA executive committee feel they are being targeted by the English media."

England 2018's strategy in the remaining weeks is to try to persuade FIFA members they should not be held responsible for the media.

England also remain hopeful their bid will be judged the strongest when the FIFA technical inspectors' report into the bids comes out later this month.

FIFA's ethics committee are also investigating separate allegations that Qatar's 2022 bid has colluded with the Spain/Portugal 2018 bid, something forbidden by bidding regulations.

Bin Hammam, who is from Qatar, said on his website: "Forging identity, fabricating evidence and setting traps are unethical behaviours in my point of view.

"One thing about Middle East media, these are rare happenings there."

Richard Caborn, the former sports minister who was ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown's 2018 bid ambassador, believes there has been an anti-England backlash but that the bid team should take positive action.

Caborn said: "This is not a dissimilar situation to London's Olympic bid and the Panorama investigation then. We welcomed the IOC's ethics committee taking steps then and we should do so with FIFA's ethics committee.

"I think there will be a backlash from some FIFA members but we should have distanced ourselves from the Sunday Times investigation as soon as it came out, and publicly welcome what FIFA have done by setting up an ethics committee."