On 2 December 2010, I was hosting an event on behalf of the England 2018 World Cup bid outside City Hall in central London. It was toe-curlingly cold. My co-host, Charlotte Jackson, and I were joined by Peter Crouch and David Ginola among others to celebrate England’s certain success – the first World Cup on home soil since ’66. We were favourites. It was a good bid, albeit laced with that hubris that we often fail to acknowledge. They do actually play football in other countries. A small cro...