Former Bristol Rovers defender Gary Mabbutt MBE is one of the unlikely men behind South Africa's successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

And now the ex-England international hopes to make it two out of two with his own country's bid for 2018.

Bristol are in the running to be a host city, should England prove successful, and Bristol-born Mabbutt might just be persuaded to pitch in on the city's behalf.

Mabbutt served Rovers with distinction in their Eastville days for more than 100 matches before being snapped up by top-flight Tottenham Hotspur in 1982.

He went on to lift the 1984 UEFA Cup, the 1991 FA Cup and to become Spurs' longest-serving player. There was also the small matter of 16 caps for England, and all while dealing with diabetes.

Now the 47-year-old is ready and willing to help advise England, and Bristol, on their respective bids for a slice of World Cup magic.

"I think it's absolutely brilliant for Bristol to put in a bid as there is so much around there for visitors to explore," he told the Evening Post, shortly after arriving back in England yesterday from the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

"It's a beautiful part of the world. Not just Bristol itself, but North Devon, Somerset, the whole area.

"So much work has been done in and around the city in recent years and it would make a great host city."

Mabbutt's World Cup connection began during the twilight of his career with Spurs. He was asked to go out to South Africa and lend his name, expertise and time to programmes in the townships. He accepted wholeheartedly, one of the reasons behind his MBE.

Over the course of several summers he became close friends with Danny Jordaan, a Spurs fan and now CEO of the World Cup 2010 organising committee.

South Africa were initially bidding for the right to stage the 2006 World Cup and Mabbutt resisted early overtures for his assistance to avoid a clash with England's own 2006 bid.

But once FIFA chose Germany Mabbutt was free to become an ambassador for the South African's 2010 bid, alongside the likes of former world player of the year George Weah, Brazilian legend Pele and South Africa's greatest football export, the former Leeds United centre back Lucas Radebe.

They won the bid in 2004 and since then Mabbutt, who has a South African wife, has carried on his work with them, spending two to three months a year in South Africa.

"It is so much more than a football World Cup," he said.

"This is an opportunity for South Africa to grasp the attention of the whole world for an entire month.

"Sanctions were brought into South Africa to bring about the fall of apartheid, and necessarily so. But during that time the big companies left. We want to turn the tap back on and encourage people and companies back to South Africa.

"The World Cup is the biggest possible advert for South Africa, post apartheid, to show off the people, the culture, the vibrancy of the country."

While the prospect of World Cup football in Bristol is mouth watering, it is everything else the competition brings which is to be embraced. Our city is blessed not to have had the recent turbulent history of South Africa, but it can still benefit enormously from a place on the world's biggest advertising platform.

"I think the Confederations Cup has already started to change peoples' perceptions of South Africa," said Mabbutt.

"And I will keep working with them, but it doesn't stop me working on England's bid for 2018."

His Rovers background will not prohibit him from supporting a Bristol bid which hinges on a new stadium for the competition across town, Bristol City.

"There's always going to be rivalry between the Robins and the Gas," he said.

"But if everybody helps to pull together and sing from the same song sheet it will be great for Bristol."

Bristol City Council's best move yet might be to approach Mabbutt as a song writer to help write that sheet and hope he can fulfil the next ambition of his distinguished career.

"I've got a 100% World Cup bid record," he jested.

"One out of one. Let's hope we can double that with England."