World Cup 2010: Lucas Radebe joins David Beckham to promote 2018 bid

By Paul Kelso
Published: 7:24PM BST 09 Jun 2010.

Glad handling: David Beckham, seen here handing England's bid book to Fifa president Sepp Blatter, is becoming increasingly accomplished in his role as bid ambassadorPhoto: Reuters

England and the eight other bids competing for the 2018 and 2022 competitions will present to representatives of 208 national football associations at a "bidders expo" during the Fifa Congress in Sandton.

The bids will not be making formal presentations to members but will host stands at which they delegates can discuss their offers. The presence of Beckham and Radebe, an icon of post-apartheid South African football, should ensure that England have plenty of visitors.

Bid chief executive Andy Anson, international president David Dein and bid chairman Geoff Thompson, a Fifa executive committee member, will also be present.

The expo comes after England made a well-received presentation on Tuesday to the Concacaf federation members, led by Fifa vice-president Jack Warner.

England are hopeful that they can use the Word Cup to erase any lingering damage caused by last month's Lord Triesman affair, in which the former head of the bid team was caught out making allegations of corruption regarding the Spanish and Russian football authorities.

As anticipated it is increasingly certain that England will be competing only with European rivals for 2018. On Wednesday Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammad Bin Hammam reveladed his support for a Europe-only contest in 2018.

"It will be an open bid and everybody is free to support anyone, but our support is for Europe when it comes to 2018. The mood inside the Fifa executive committee is that Europe should host the 2018 version."

Wimbledon 2010: when Laura Robson met David Beckham

By Oliver Brown and Sandy Macaskill.
Published: 10:13PM BST 02 Jul 2010.

Star spectator: David Beckham joins the crowds at the Wimbledon tennis championships Photo: Heathcliff O'Malley

Defeat was already in the air over Court 12 as first Oliver Golding then Laura Robson were knocked out of the junior competition – both in straight sets.

There were compensations, however. The day after ‘Puppy-gate’, Laura Robson discovered she had an admirer. Stung by the criticisms of BBC commentator David Mercer, who argued that she was impairing her progress by carrying too much puppy fat, the 16 year-old walked away from a miserable defeat on Court 12 and straight into David Beckham.

Forget Andy Murray, Beckham was yesterday’s sensation of SW19, attracting a peal of teenage screams outside Centre Court the second he left the Scot’s match against Rafael Nadal. But earlier he had found time to trek out to the boondocks to see the next great British hope.

“I got a picture with him and that brightened my day so much,” said Robson, dismayed by her 7-5, 7-6 semi-final exit from the girls’ event she so memorably won two summers ago.

Wisely, she found a note of self-effacement when asked what influence Beckham might make if he saw one of her games on the grandest stage. “I wouldn’t know,” she replied. “I’d have to get into that position to know what it feels like.”

Robson’s involvement among the juniors this year had always felt like a thankless sideshow, and so it proved in this premature end. Her priority is building her form in the main draw, where she extended Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic to a first-set tie-break, not filling out her second week at Wimbledon on the girls’ undercard.

She has all but ruled out the possibility of a return to the lesser event next year, instead focusing her energies on a climb up the senior world rankings. Robson, who does not turn 17 until January, remains restricted by the women’s tour as to the number of events she can enter, but hinted that she could still do enough to earn automatic entry to the US Open next month.

Golding had gone into his match against Benjamin Mitchell, an unseeded Australian, with hopes of becoming the first British boy to reach the junior final at the All England Club since Miles Kasiri in 2004, perhaps even the first to win the thing since Stanley Matthews Jnr in 1962. He failed in emphatic manner, losing 6-2, 6-2.

Throughout the tournament, Golding picked up praise for a booming serve which at times nudged 130mph, especially impressive considering he is just 16. The Briton had been able to bully opponents off the court with such a powerful delivery, including the top seed, Jason Kubler.

Yet it has also disguised deficiencies in his ground game, which were ruthlessly exposed in this semi-final.

A former child actor, Golding is unaffected by the big stage. He just tried too hard, pushing his first serve too far, so that less than half went in. Of those bombs that went in, Golding lost 48 per cent — going for too much from the baseline.

Meanwhile he did not force even one break point from his opponent. Say what you like about statistics, with numbers like those, it was only going to end one way.

Beckham: we didn’t play at the level that we were capable of

David Beckham

David Beckham, the former England captain who missed the finals in South Africa due to injury, admitted the Three Lions simply weren’t good enough.
“We didn’t play at the level we knew that we were capable of,” Beckham said. “Over the four matches we weren’t good enough and regardless of the goal that never was, Germany played better than we did over the 90 minutes and deserved to go through. Having seen the lads in training, the spirit was good, everyone trained at a really high level, it was just disappointing we couldn’t transfer that onto the pitch. As a team, we have to learn from everything that’s happened, come back stronger and play to our potential.”

Despite the disappointment Beckham, England’s second highest cap winner behind Peter Shilton, was full of praise for the England supporters who made their way to South Africa.

“I have to say the fans were unbelievable, like they always are,” he said. “It must have been really tough, having spent the time and money they did and the team were so desperate to give them the success their support deserved.”