Secret recordings could rock England's 2018 WCup bid

LONDON -- England's hopes of winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup could be set back by secretly taped conversations which a British tabloid claims to have made of the Football Association's chairman.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper claims to have taped David Triesman making a series of allegations about countries with rival bids while talking to a former aide from his time as a government minister.

The newspaper's website quoted from the recordings of the 66-year-old Triesman made two weeks ago but did not publish the audio.

The Mail claims that the FA tried to obtain a High Court injunction on Saturday to prevent publication of the story. The FA did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The Mail reported that Triesman made allegations against Spanish and Russian bids in a converstaion with civil servant Melissa Jacobs.

The 37-year-old Jacobs claims she had an affair with the married Triesman in 2008 when he became the FA's first independent chairman.

During his meeting with Jacobs in a London restaurant two weeks ago, the Mail alleges that Triesman discussed the firing of John Terry as England captain for having an affair with a teammate's former partner. The newspaper also claims Triesman discussed former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's election campaign failures.

Triesman attended Saturday's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth - a day after flying with former England captain David Beckham to FIFA headquarters in Zurich to hand over England's official bid book for the 2018 World Cup.

Triesman had told a briefing earlier in the week that he hoped England would succeed in Cup bidding by running a fair campaign.

"I don't believe you can ever be too clean," Triesman said. "I've said from the beginning - and I know it's true of everybody involved in this team - that we would not try and earn it by means we that would be ashamed of. We just wouldn't do it.

"I think it's actually helpful to us. When people say, 'You are all very gentlemanly and you play by the rules and so on' I'm afraid I can't take that as a criticism. I would rather people knew that we did it the right way."

Other bids to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups have come from Australia, Russia and the United States, plus joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands. Japan, Qatar and South Korea will concentrate on 2022, believing Europe is favored for 2018.