Bristol's 2018 World Cup bid submitted

The dream is a step closer to becoming a reality. Bristol's bid to bring World Cup football to the West Country has been lodged at Wembley and now begins the nervous wait until December 16.

The 16-strong Bristol 2018 team came, saw and shook a lot of hands at the showpiece home of English football yesterday, confident that the largest city in the South outside London has everything it takes, and more, to become a valued addition to England's bid.

Wallace and Gromit and former Bristol Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur and England defender Gary Mabbutt MBE turned heads as the team walked the lobby. And the giant football which has toured the South West collecting more than 10,000 signatures was seen by all on Wembley Way.

The stadium was awash with mascots, flags, fliers, suits and celebrities as all 15 cities hoping to be part of England's bid presented their case in a well-oiled whirlwind of World Cup fever.

Chairman of the Football Association and the England 2018 bid team Lord Triesman was on hand along with selection panel chairman Lord Mawhinney to greet each bid team and reiterate the significance of a geographical spread of host venues in the bid.

"It is important," Lord Mawhinney told the Evening Post. "FIFA say it is important. And therefore for us it is important. It would be important anyway.

"But we will pick what we judge to be the best bids. And that's in the best interests of the overall bid. We want the highest quality cities and stadia to be at the heart of what we're trying to sell to FIFA.

"This is a very exciting day for English football and the culmination of a lot of hard work by local authorities across the country. As you look around you see the cream of the country's cities. We're in very good shape and this is the first visible demonstration that (the England bid) is on track, that we've a good bid."

The Bristol contingent travelled to London along the M4 in a bio-diesel minibus to emphasise the city's green credentials and live up to its title as Britain's most sustainable city as voted by the EU's Forum for the Future.

And Bristol bid director Stephen Wray was excited to be finally submitting the bid and enjoying the latest opportunity to spread the word of what the West has to offer the England 2018 team.

He told the Evening Post: "It's been a long day. It's been an exciting day, meeting people, John Barnes, Paul Elliott, Paul Ince, these fantastic footballers from my era.

"We've done a lot of what you would call glad-handing I guess, formal and official photographs and quite a lot of interviews reinforcing the importance of the bid to Bristol. We want to be a successful city. And bringing the World Cup to Bristol would show the level of ambition that we have now as a major international city.

"It's been a long nine months of preparation and in our view it is a very solid bid and one we are very proud of. I think what we have in Bristol, apart from a fantastic city, is creativity in spades and hopefully that would be valuable to England's bid."

Bristol's delegation included deputy leader of Bristol City Council Simon Cook, Bristol City FC chief executive Colin Sexstone and four schoolchildren who won a city-wide World Cup quiz to attend the event.

The team were also accompanied by Amy Kington, county development manager for the Somerset FA and Fola Kudehinbu, chair of the African and Caribbean chamber of commerce and enterprise to emphasise the diversity and reach of Bristol's bid.

The bid may now be with the FA but there is work still to do. The Bristol bid team have one last presentation to the England 2018 board on December 16, fielding any outstanding technical questions hours before the final decision is made on venues later that day.

Yesterday was a taste of the media interest and subsequent opportunities to come if Bristol is selected, and the city wants more come December 16.