David Cameron moves to revive England's 2018 World Cup bid

David Cameron has moved to revive England's ailing 2018 World Cup bid by holding talks with one of the key figures in determining the identity of the hosts: Chung Mong-joon, Fifa vice-president and president of Korea's FA. Fifa is due to decide at a crucial meeting at its Zurich headquarters in December whether to give the lucrative one-month World Cup to England. The current favourite is Russia, but bids have also been submitted jointly by Spain and Portugal, and by Holland and Belgium. Cameron joked with Lee Myung-bak, the president of South Korea, at their bilateral meeting in Seoul that "I was spending much more time on the World Cup than on the G20". In a sign of the seriousness Cameron is treating the bid, he reminded the cabinet at the beginning of this week that the decision was only a month away and everyone one should do all they could to garner votes. The 24 members of the executive committee of the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) will meet to vote on the 2018 World Cup bid. The committee's strength will be reduced to 22 if two members – Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti – are still, by that date, suspended pending an internal Fifa investigation into whether they truly sought money in return for supporting bids. The Sunday Times probe – condemned as entrapment by Fifa officials – is said to have damaged the English World Cup bid, and alienated other members of the executive. Cameron will have to make a big political judgment on how far to push his personal involvement in the bid with most key advisers telling him he has nothing to lose by trying hard to secure the tournament for a football loving nation. The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has been to Downing Street to see a presentation on England's bid, featuring David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Didier Drogba. Cameron said at the time the bid had the highest level backing inside the British government that if the bid is successful England is "ready, willing and able to deliver the best World Cup ever and the best legacy ever".