How To Embrace Failure

Today England lost out to Russia in its bid to host the 2018 World Cup, the result rounding off what has been a bleak year for English football after its dismal summer World Cup campaign - the weather at the minute is more than fitting.

Searching for a silver lining here is tough. Because when your bid is near flawless, and you have the backing of your Prince and Prime Minister - and David Beckham - losing is a bitter pill to swallow; add in a winning Russian bid that is built on a dozen venues that do not even exist yet then it becomes ridiculous; but then remind yourself  that Germany have hosted the tournament twice since England did in 1966 and it becomes unbelieveable.

We could all go on forever damning today's selection. And of course in some ways we have ourselves to blame - Panorama, and all that jazz. But what's important is looking on the bright side, where there is enough to still be buoyant about:

• even if the result doesn't reflect it, the world is not ignorant to the fact that England's campaign was better than the rest - indeed, it will probably be remembered for these reasons;
• the English Premier League remains the most watched in the world and is still (one of) the most exiciting;
• the national side remains 6th in the FIFA world rankings.

Okay, so without question the third one is clutching at straws. But saying that, there is a fresh optimism carrying the national team since its failure in Africa, and the news today, if nothing else, can open new ground for this "starting-over" mentality.

Going forward we need to recognise that there is a new environment in world football. South Africa 2010 led the way in this new front; Russia and Qatar will carry the baton and likely pass it on to a successor from the same pool - where the common gene is a young and scarce World Cup history. For England, Operation Bringing-Football-Home now needs new direction - and it's a simple one... if you can't stage it, go and win it.