England’s 2018 World Cup bid team will hold a meeting on Thursday in an attempt to get the campaign back on track.
The Prime Minister’s 2018 bid ambassador Richard Caborn has called for unity, adding that the government will take a reduced role if required.
Some bid directors have suggested that the government has reneged on a promise to provide £5m towards the bid.
But Caborn said: “Our message is the domestic squabbling must stop, and we must get on with winning the votes.”
Thursday’s meeting will focus on ways to turn attention back to winning sufficient votes of the 24 Fifa executive members.
“From day one we have been very, very supportive and some £5m of public money will go towards the bid – £2.5m as a loan from Government and £250,000 from each of the 10 local authorities who are successful as candidate cities,” he said.
“We genuinely want to be successful and are now in process of putting in place nearly £0.5bn of guarantees – £350m from Government and £100m from local authorities.
“We do believe that the bid requires some re-organisation and a new direction.
“We should be focusing on the real issue of winning the votes rather than the domestic issues that have dominated this campaign and if the 2018 board believes we need to reduce government involvement then we will do that.
“The Prime Minister wants to make sure we will do everything we can to win the bid.”
However, some 2018 bid directors are also said to be unhappy at the handling of the remarks recently made by Fifa vice-president Jack Warner.
Earlier this month Warner revealed he had returned a gift, a luxury handbag, from the bid team to his wife.
And in October Warner criticised England’s bid saying they must improve.
“The best bid will have my vote,” Warner said. “Nothing gives you the right, you have to earn it.
“You’re earning it but not fast enough, creeping along when time passes quickly and you have to be running along.”
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