大象传媒

The decision to end the rotation was hardly a surprise.

Five weeks ago I revealed on this blog that Fifa insiders had told me that the Fifa hierarchy, led by president Sepp Blatter, were all set to make the decision.

However, Blatter explained to me afterwards that it was not an easy decision to arrive at.

The original proposal was that, instead of rotating the tournament, Fifa should return to its old policy in which the continent that had just held the World Cup was not eligible to hold the next one.

This policy had worked well when football was essentially a game of two continents in Europe and South America - World Cups simply alternated between the two.

The emergence of Africa and Asia has complicated the picture, and South Africa鈥檚 failure to win the 2006 World Cup - which went instead to Germany - led to the rotation idea.

South Africa will host the 2010 competition and Blatter is immensely proud that football has taken its premier competition to Africa when the Olympics are nowhere near to making such a decision.

This morning, though, as Fifa鈥檚 executive members gathered in Zurich, there were complications.

Such meetings of the Fifa executive have a feel of a UN Security Council meeting or an EU summit because you know a big decision is due, but you do not quite know where the men who will make it are hidden away.

The setting could not have been more appropriate - a spanking new headquarters overlooking Zurich.

It was an autumnal day, with the clocks having gone back and the leaves turning red.

Outside there was an artificial pitch which looked like it has been laid that morning, and where you expected a Kaka or a Gerrard to be practising.

In reception there was a replica of the World Cup, its golden orb glowing, but the Fifa executive members were nowhere to be seen.

Their meeting room was three floors down, reached via futuristic lifts and next to a room set aside for meditation.

The meeting itself began not with meditation, but with two proposals.

Chuck Blazer, a Fifa executive member from Concacaf, which represents north and central America and the Caribbean, reminded the meeting that many years ago he had suggested that the World Cup bidding process should be open to all confederations except the two that had held the two previous tournaments.

However, he also said that before such a proposal was considered again, the present continental rotation should be retained until the present cycle was completed.

That would mean 2018 going to his continent and, with Mexico and the USA both keen, he was confident there would be a good tussle for the right to host the tournament.

However, on a show of hands with three voting in his favour - himself, a fellow Concacaf member and African Confederation president Issa Hayatou - the proposal was defeated.

Blazer would undoubtedly have got a fourth vote had the third Concacaf member, the president Jack Warner, been there.

But Warner was busy contesting an election in his native Trinidad.

The meeting then went back to Blazer's original proposal that not only the continent that had just held the World Cup be banned from hosting the next one but that the continent which held the previous tournament should also be excluded.

This was accepted by the executive.

Blatter told me the voting was almost unanimous, with only a couple of executive members not voting in favour.

This means that for 2018 no country from Africa and South America can bid.

This is because South Africa will stage 2010 and on Tuesday it will be confirmed that Brazil, who are the only candidates, will stage 2014.

Moments after the decision, I spoke to Geoff Thompson, who is chairman of the Football Association (FA).

He was pleased but cautious.

He told me the FA board meet on Wednesday and plan to prepare a blueprint which will examine the chances of success and how the FA should proceed before any announcement is made.

Thompson is right to be cautious.

Blatter told me England would be a strong candidate as it is the powerhouse of world football, led by the Premier League.

But he also told me the lessons England should learn from its failed 2006 bid.

The lessons centre round England鈥檚 failure to get Uefa, its home confederation, to support the 2006 bid.

Blatter added: 鈥淭hey should learn the lesson that if they are not alone in Europe, who are the other bidders? England should clean the floor in Europe to see if there is really a strong contender.鈥�

Such strong contenders could be Russia, possibly Spain, or the Netherlands and Belgium (this could be a combined Benelux bid, although Fifa does not much like joint bids).

Blatter also said there will be contenders from outside Europe, with China, Australia and Mexico or the USA all possible bidders.

Thompson and the FA will certainly ponder this question before deciding whether to bid.

This time round they will also try and make sure that the European block of the Fifa executive, which has eight members and is the largest (it forms one third of the 24-man committee), is in favour of the bid.

If they do not have the support of all of them they will want a good majority at least - the 2006 bid went wrong because seven of the eight members of Uefa made it clear they supported Germany.

Blatter did provide one reassurance for England.

There have been some murmurings that England may have not helped its chances by allowing politicians like Gordon Brown, the prime minister, to launch the campaign even before Fifa had taken its decision to end rotation, let alone before the FA had decided whether to bid.

But Blatter said he did not see it as a problem. Indeed he welcomed political involvement even before the FA had spoken. He told me he had made this clear to Brown when he met the prime minister last week.

The politicians鈥� interest means that when the bid comes Fifa knows the British government is absolutely behind the bid and this is important for Fifa - the World Cup is the greatest prize it can award a country.

Fifa likes to think of itself as a sort of state. A state without a territory but with a possession called football and a total membership greater than the United Nations.

When football associations come calling for this prize Fifa likes to be courted by the highest in the land and Brown鈥檚 wooing of Blatter even before a bid has been announced may have done no harm.

If nothing else, it has stoked Blatter鈥檚 ego.