Richards quits 2018 role

Premier League chief quits bid board

By Graeme Bailey   Last updated: 24th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Richards quits 2018 role

Richards: Has quit WC role

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Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards has resigned from England's 2018 World Cup campaign bid board.

Richards sent a letter to Lord Triesman, chairman of the Football Association and the 2018 bid, confirming his resignation.

Richards was only confirmed as part of a new streamlined board earlier this month when six previous members departed to form a new seven-man board.

But now Richards has stood down, claiming he can back the bid without sitting on the board itself.

"With the recent changes to the England 2018 Bid team structure, I feel I can now best support a successful bid without the necessity of sitting on the Board," Richards said in a statement.

"My positions as Premier League chairman, FA board member and chairman of the FA's international committee provide me with ample opportunities to bang the drum for English football, and the bid particularly, right across the world, which I will continue to do wherever and whenever I can.

"My belief is that England has all the right attributes to host a successful Fifa World Cup - our challenge now is to convince the 24 members of Fifa's ExCo

[executive committee] of that. This must be our focus and priority going forward."