David Davies joins the 2018 World Cup brain drain

Updated: 19:15 EST, 2 December 2009

Former FA executive director David Davies has joined the exodus of talent that could have been used by the England 2018 bid.

Davies, whose long international networking experiences from his decade at the FA have been ignored by the 2018 campaign team, has accepted an offer to become South African World Cup chief Danny Jordaan’s personal consultant for the tournament.

Networking: Davies

The two became close friends during the bidding process for the 2006 World Cup and there has been a long-standing invitation for Davies to join the hub of the South African organising committee since a trial run during the Confederations Cup last summer.

Davies said: ‘I regard it as a great privilege to work for such an inspirational figure as Danny Jordaan.’

Meanwhile, Mike Lee, the spin doctor for both the successful London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic bids, has been joined on the Qatar World Cup 2022 bidding team by another English leader in his field, sports event management expert Nigel Rushman. And New Moon, the London film production company responsible for the acclaimed London Olympic bid video, are also in the Qatar camp.

Yet another sign of a wasted opportunity came in the bear hug with which FIFA president Sepp Blatter greeted former FA chief executive Brian Barwick at the Soccerex conference in  Johannesburg.

Barwick, one of English football’s best networkers, was not even deemed worth a place among the bid’s 70-odd ambassadors.

Jonathan Hill, the FA’s erstwhile commercial director who finished his stint of Wembley gardening leave at this week, is now expected to join sports agency giants Kentaro, with whom he arranged England’s first match at the new national stadium against Brazil and the recent reciprocal fixture in Qatar.

Lucas Radebe (right), once a crowd favourite at Leeds, was still feeling the effects of a Steve McMahon tackle two days after a supposedly friendly golden oldie six-a-side Soccerex tournament.

Liverpool hardman McMahon took it so seriously he was sent off in the final.

All sides are now resigned to the ridiculous scenario whereby England’s 2018 campaign is operating against a backdrop of the complete breakdown in the relationship between bid chairman Lord Triesman and Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.

To make matters worse, loose cannon Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards, who timed his resignation from the 2018 board to cause maximum havoc, has misgivings about FA chief executive Ian Watmore, as well as Lord T.

Bid has bags of laughs

The England bid team still have a sense of humour over the Mulberry handbag fiasco, as shown in their planning for the gifts they should offer the media at tomorrow’s Cape Town bunfight.

England were planning to have Mulberry branding on their freebie computer memory sticks until deciding it might be too provocative.

Rival countries are claiming the handbags (shop price £500), for which the FA paid £240 each, exceeded FIFA’s $100 limit on the value of presents. England 2018 say that regulation was detailed in the 2014 bid rules but no precise ceiling has been set this time.

The BBC investigation into the sabotage of an early morning 5 Live sports news bulletin with obscene material has concluded that chief suspect Ben Jacobs will not be offered any more freelance shifts. But the Beeb will be extremely careful with any statement for fear of legal action by Jacobs, who has kept silent since denying any involvement. He claims someone logged on to the BBC computer system in his name.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph’s Jim White, who comes from the same David Welch agency stable as Jacobs, is on the short list for the BBC sports editor’s job along with in-house candidate James Pearce and Tim Franks, a BBC radio foreign correspondent.