‘3 LIONS TO HOST DELAYED WORLD CUP’
England could host tournament next year as pressure grows over poisoning outrage Postpone it, MPs urging footie chiefs
ENGLAND are poised to pinch the World Cup from Russia in the wake of the spy poisoning scandal.
Fifa football bosses are under pressure to take this summer’s tournament off sneering Vladimir Putin and hold it here next year.
ENGLAND could kick Vladimir Putin where it hurts by stealing the World Cup.
MPs yesterday called for the tournament – due to start in Russia in June – to be postponed after Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned.
Politicians urged Fifa to delay it until next year and appoint a new host country.
And England would be among the favourites to step in at short notice because we have plenty of suitable grounds.
The country originally missed out on the chance to host the tournament after a controversial Fifa vote held in 2010 whenfootball’s world governing body was steeped in corruption.
MPs said that holding the World Cup here would be the “harshest punishment short of war” and would “belittle” the Russian president.
Expel
Labour’s Stephen Kinnock said the competition should not be allowed to go ahead in Russia after the Salisbury attack which left Sergei and Yulia fighting for life and Det Sgt Nick Bailey, 38, who went to help them, seriously ill. He supported Theresa May’s decision to expel 23 of Mr Putin’s spies after British scientists discovered they were poisoned by a novichok nerve agent made in a Russian lab. But he called for further action to wreck the tournament. “I think we should seriously be looking at the World Cup as a point of leverage,” he told BBC Radio 4. “Putin has invested billions of roubles in the World Cup. “Do we seriously think we should be having a celebration of the beautiful game in Russia in the summer given what has happened on the streets of Salisbury?” Another Labour MP, Ian Austin, said Putin would “use the World Cup in the same way that Hitler used the 1936 Munich Olympics – as a public relations exercise for a brutal dictatorship”. The Prime Minister has said no Government officials or members of the Royal Family will attend the tournament. She said the decision on whether the England team take part should be made by the Football Association, but urged them to consider their position. The FA last night declined to comment.