England will go it alone in cup bid

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Barwick also played down England's position as bookies' favourites and said there was no question of the FA being complacent.

Speaking at the FT Sports Summit in London, Barwick confirmed the bid would be exclusively English, saying: "We know other countries want to host the World Cup in 2018 and it is not a given but we will give it our best shot."

He added: "There are a lot of things to work through ahead of us and we have to have the leadership of this campaign absolutely spot on.

"We know that will tax us in the next few months.

"There are lots of good messages about English football across the world - both from on the pitch and away from the pitch with coaching, refereeing and business education programmes.

"We think we should seize the moment. We have government support, Sepp Blatter is very positive about English football, and on Tuesday Franz Beckenbauer said he thought 2018 should be in this country.

"But there is no complacency whatsoever and no arrogance."

The Football Association announced on Wednesday they are to launch an England bid for 2018 and there is likely to be tough opposition from Russia, China, USA and Australia.

The decision was set in motion on Monday when FIFA decided to abandon rotation of the World Cup between confederations and make the only restrictions for 2018 tournament that countries from Africa and South America cannot bid as their continents are hosting the finals in 2010 (South Africa) and 2014 (Brazil).