George Ferguson: Bristol is in a spin over World Cup 2018

Last week the FA were caught handing out expensive designer handbags to the FIFA 'wags' on their visit to London as part of England's campaign to get the World Cup in 2018. It is deeply embarrassing.

However, far more embarrassing is the froth that Bristol is getting itself into over the faint hope half a dozen of these matches come to the city.

I have heard people quoting fantastic exaggerated financial benefits to the city of hosting the World Cup. These are trumped up by lobbyists, based on some far-fetched formula to do with the advertising value of England and Bristol, being mentioned in the world press! It has nothing to do with reality. In reality it will cost us.

We may not be handing out handbags to FIFA officials, but Bristol is considering a much larger and more sinister present in the form of a planning permission for a giant supermarket at Ashton Gate, on land partly owned by the city council when there is absolutely no planning or retail case for it.

I am all for the World Cup coming to Bristol if by chance England manages to secure it. What is clear is it is far from a shoe-in, any more than Chicago was for the 2016 Olympics, and we don't have Obama to root for us!

More to the point, as a longstanding sponsor of Bristol City, I would like to see a stadium that would serve City well if we make the Premier League one day. However the idea that our community should have a giant retail shed and car park dumped on it because of some far-fetched argument that it is essential to our football hopes is a bogus one that needs exposing. Unfortunately the Bristol Evening Post is encouraging the myth.

The other myth is the so-called 'public' support. An analysis of the online petition (for which the football supporters club incidentally offered cash vouchers for those collecting signatures) reveals less than a third have Bristol addresses and they are predominantly male, the majority coming from outside the city.

It is clear that this is a case of football fans voting for football, not for a hypermarket! This contrasts with the much more genuine anti-supermarket petition which has an even split between men and women and is predominately local Bristol signatories.

I have had pressure put on me to change or moderate my view. There are too many vested interests around the land deals involved and the pressure on the planners and politicians is enormous. They need help in resisting this. They need to see that there is an alternative way that fits our laudable ambition to become a truly sustainable city, and for which there would be far greater long-term economic benefit.

With this in mind we have formed a Bristol based design team to demonstrate that something of true worth to the city can be developed on the Ashton Gate site to benefit the club and that this would release pressure on the Green Belt for housing and employment as well as bring real economic and environmental benefit.

It would be Bristol's first demonstration 'carbon-neutral' neighbourhood as opposed to the proposed carbon hungry big shed retail development, which would turn every day into 'match day' for our local Ashton streets.

It is important that our planners are left to take a truly ethical and independent planning decision on this issue if we are not to be hand-bagged by big business interests.