Sebastian Coe is confident England's campaign to host the 2018 World Cup football finals can recover from the debacle that led to the resignation yesterday of the bid chairman Lord David Triesman.
Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 Olympics, is also on the 2018 bid board and has taken the leading role in the damage limitation operation mounted in the aftermath of Triesman's resignation.
The English FA chairman stepped down yesterday following the publication of recorded marks in which he repeated conspiracy speculation that bid rivals Spain could drop out of the battle to host the 2018 tournament in return for Russia helping them to bribe referees at next month's finals in South Africa.