League were behind bid - Scudamore

Chief executive Richard Scudamore insists the Premier League were fully supportive of England's 2018 World Cup bid - although he did not always see eye to eye with former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman or approve of his approach before he resigned a year ago.

Scudamore has denied Triesman's claims the Premier League's support for the ill-fated bid hinged on the FA backing their proposals for a 39th game in places as far flung as Sydney and Beijing, which were first mooted more than three years ago.

The FA rejected the plan amid fears it could harm the World Cup bid but Scudamore told Sky Sports News: "He (Lord Triesman) completely missed timings on that. The fact is we were right in at the very beginning - in fact, before the very beginning, when the Government was talking about bidding for the World Cup. We were absolutely involved in that and we were very supportive of that."

He added: "Nothing, from the start of this to the end, did the Premier League do to not support the idea of England hosting the World Cup.

"However, I have to be very candid and say that's not the same thing as we were always 100% supportive of the way Lord Triesman was actually going about doing that.

"That's a separate issue altogether because he was doing things in a way which, perhaps, we would have done things differently.

"But there was absolutely no link at all between the international round and our support for the bid."