The door for England to bid for the 2018 World Cup has been opened, but for them to go through and claim the prize will require both skill and lot of nous when it comes to football politics.
That would be in stark contrast to the shambolic bid for the 2006 World Cup when England were eliminated in the second round having secured just two votes.
However, Fifa executive members realise an English bid will be a strong one and that it may be time for England - by 2018 it will be 52 years since the country that gave the world the game last staged the competition.
This was the message emerging from Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich on Monday as world football’s governing body decided that rotating World Cups round continents has had its day.
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on Thursday but the roots of this story stretch back to last year.
The first problems came when he gave an interview in which he said Tottenham couldn't expect to be a big club like the top four. This did not go down well with the board.
The followed in January of this year, in which Spurs let a 2-0 first-leg lead slip and that raised the feeling in the board that Jol did not get his tactics right.
This was reinforced two months later in the when Spurs led 3-1 before Berbatov came off for Mido. They lost the lead and were .
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The Rugby World Cup may not have ended in the right result for England, but the sport can draw much satisfaction from the way the tournament was organised.
The contrast with the football equivalent could not be more vivid or more favourable to the oval ball.
For a start, there is the behaviour of the two sets of fans, particularly English ones.
The Rugby World Cup final in Paris saw .
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Unlike our ancestors, we do not believe in myth and magic. Like rational humans, we tend to consider such practices primitive.
Except when it comes to sport.
Sport provides the ultimate proof that we are not all that different from our ‘hunter-gatherer’ forefathers.
And this weekend is the supreme example of how magically mythical sport can be.
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Word reaches me that advisers to have been going through the Arsenal share register with a fine tooth comb, to try to identify shares they can buy.
The target for the moment remains to get to the 25% blocking stake. The board are confident that they and their friends and associates have over 50%. With having 12.8% and Red and White, Usmanov's vehicle, having 23.16% this leaves nearly 15% around in the hands of small shareholders.
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The chief executive of the (CGF), the feisty New Zealander Mike Hooper, flies to Delhi today to spend two thirds of every month in the Indian capital.
According to the official publicity machine, he is relocating to to assist the Indians as they prepare for the 2010 Games.
Privately, however, his move reflects the deep anxiety felt by the CGF about the lack of progress Delhi has made since - the first Indian city to do so.
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