The 2018 World Cup bid, the Daily Mail and Bill Hicks

The late and much lamented Bill Hicks regularly entertained audiences in the early nineties with his impersonations of then US President George Bush. It’s time to repeat one of his most famous quotes.

“We still live in a dangerous world,” Bush (Hicks) would say, before the conscience of the comedian interrupted proceedings.

“Thanks to you,” he would conclude, not so subtly suggesting one of the reasons why there was so much trouble in the world was the practice of selling arms to unstable pariah regimes which could go loopy at any time.

I mention Hicks because the Daily Mail, which released details of a private conversation between Lord Triesman and a former civil servant, during which the peer claimed Spain was preparing to bribe referees at the World Cup with the help of the Russians, today ran an article calling for Seb Coe to save the England bid.

Of course the article reiterated the main accusations from the original article without saying who printed them in the first place.

In its view, Triesman had to go because of his “stunning indiscretions”, “wild allegations” and “wholly destructive comments”, all of which were presented to Daily Mail readers over tea and toast.

Fair enough, the man’s a complete fool for allowing himself to be trapped by someone driven by money and perhaps other darker motives.

But she turned up to have dinner with Triesman after being fitted with a wire by the Daily Mail. So if the paper asks: “Is our World Cup bid damaged beyond repair?”, you could always reply, “Very possibly, thanks to you.”