Coe: Final presentations key to bid success
Reuters - Wednesday 01 December 2010, 12:33
ZURICH - The final presentations by the
bidding nations attempting to win the right to stage the World
Cup finals can be decisive, Sebastian Coe said before they
started on Tuesday.
Coe, who overcame the odds and masterminded London's
successful campaign to secure the 2012 Summer Olympic Games with
a powerful speech to International Olympic Committee delegates
in Singapore in 2005, is working on behalf of England's bid to
stage the 2018 World Cup finals.
England are bidding against Russia and joint-bids from
Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium for the 2018 finals while
United States, Qatar, South Korea, Japan and Australia are
battling to stage the 2022 finals.
The 2022 contenders are making their final bids to FIFA's
executive committee members on Wednesday and Thursday and Coe
explained why they are so important.
"They really are vital. As bidding processes become more
sophisticated, the messaging and skill sets get better, the
reach is greater, everything is more important than it was 30
years ago."
Recalling his speech in Singapore, Coe explained: "There
were IOC delegates who said to me after the vote that they
thought they were voting one way, and they actually shifted
their ground during the presentations.
"I think it can happen here. There may well be ExCo members
who think they are absolutely fixed in their view, and this is
where they are going to go but a really strong presentation,
with a really clear messages and some emotional appeal can make
a difference."
Coe, naturally, wants the England bid to succeed and said
that members of the England bid campaign had watched DVDs of
what happened in Singapore and had taken advice from Coe
himself.
He agreed that a bad final presentation could also undo
years of campaigning.
"Yes, you can shoot yourself in the foot. You can damage
yourself, but you have to find a balance because you don't want
to become completely risk adverse and supine."