England, however, had only two votes, one from bid chairman Geoff Thompson.
“I cannot believe what has happened, and I am naturally very, very disappointed. The votes that were promised clearly didn’t materialise. I never imagined we would go out in the first round,” said Thompson.
US 2022 bid chief Sunil Gulati claimed the election was decided by “politics, friendships, alliances and tactics” and not on the merits of each candidacy.
On the selection process, he said that it is “obviously not the way certain things are done in the US or in other parts of the world, and it is the way things are done in different parts of the world frankly, and I had some discussions with some of our competitors about that.”
With FIFA again deciding to award the World Cup hosting rights to emerging economies after South Africa organising this year’s tournament and Brazil set to stage the event in 2014, Gulati added: “If that’s what’s going to resonate, it would be good if everyone would let us know.”
