England's World Cup bid distances itself from free press

The Press Association reports that England 2018 bid leaders have sent a letter to all Fifa executive committee members to try to repair the damage caused by two media investigations into World Cup bidding.

The letter states: "We hope England's bid will not be judged negatively due to the activities of individual media organisations, regardless of one's view of their conduct. We hope you appreciate that we have no control over the British media."

The investigations into alleged corruption within football's world governing body Fifa have been carried out by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama and the Sunday Times. How pathetic to see British administrators grovelling at the feet of all those [insert your own words as long as they're not libellous] who "run" world football.

If that's what it takes to win the World Cup bid, you can stick it.

PS. I felt the same about our Olympic bid but at least Lord Coe & Co didn't sink this low. I feel physically sick.