England are dubbed ‘bad losers'

London: Sepp Blatter has compounded England's crushing disappointment at losing the 2018 World Cup bid by branding the English "bad losers".

Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup after England were humiliated, receiving only two votes despite submitting what Fifa itself deemed to be a superior technical bid.

Fifa president Blatter said: "To be honest, I was surprised by all the English complaining after the defeat. England, of all people, the motherland of fair-play ideas."

"Now some of them are showing themselves to be bad losers. You can't come afterwards and say so-and-so promised to vote for England. The results are known. The outcome came out clearly."

England's bid team in Zurich, which included Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham, were confident of the votes of at least six of the 22 committee members, but the delegates failed to register their support when it mattered.

FA general secretary Alex Horne told the BBC: "People were specifically told things that didn't come to light. If half-a-dozen people promised us a vote and we only got one then people lied to us."

Hugh Robertson, minister for sport and the Olympics, said it was probably not a "football-based decision" and Andy Anson, England 2018 chief executive, recommended the country does not bid again until the selection process is changed.

In addition, the acting chairman of the FA, Roger Burden, last week withdrew his application for the permanent position, saying: "I'm not prepared to deal with people [at Fifa] whom I cannot trust."

But, in an interview with Swiss magazine Weltwoche, Blatter hit back at suggestions that the voting process was flawed. He went on to accuse England of arrogance and suggested the country is resistant to change.

Get a chance

The 74-year-old said: "I really sense in some reactions a bit of the arrogance of the western world of Christian background. Some simply can't bear it if others get a chance for a change."

"What can be wrong if we start football in regions where this sport demonstrates a potential which goes far beyond sport?"