If there is a factor holding back England’s World Cup bid it is the lack of a recognisable, heavyweight figure behind it.

These generally come in two categories. Legendary former footballers of the calibre of Johan Cruyff or Eusébio, whose presence alone lends credibility to any bid. Or second, a veteran figure in the world of football administration; a dealmaker who can get things done, such as Chung Mong Joon, who was instrumental in South Korea’s World Cup exploits in winning the joint bid with Japan, or Senes Erzik, the Uefa vice-president from Turkey.

But the best scenario is to have someone who is both a recognisable former footballer and a savvy politician, such as Michel Platini, Franz Beckenbauer or Ángel María Villar Llona, a former Spain defender who heads the Spanish FA and is a vice-president of Uefa and Fifa.

The tricky thing for England is perhaps that it lacks a comparable figure in the category of universally loved, legendary former player. The closest candidate would be Sir Bobby Charlton, who is 72 but has shied away from football politicking.

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With no retired global superstar available, David Beckham is being drafted in, if only because wherever he appears the cameras are bound to follow.

On the administrator front, England has not had a heavyweight dealmaker since Sir Bert Millichip and, before him, Sir Stanley Rous. Indeed, it is somewhat ironic that even as the Premier League boomed in the past decade, Scotland enjoyed more clout than England within the corridors of powers, thanks to the late David Will, a Fifa vice-president, and David Taylor, the Uefa general secretary.

Such considerations may be why the organising committee has emphasised other strengths, such as the multicultural nature of English football (with the 50 ambassadors, many of them overseas stars playing in the Premier League) and the quality and size of the venues.

Of course, from a fan’s perspective, the venues, coupled with a nation’s organisational skills, should be the only real criteria. But sport does not always work that way, which is why perhaps the FA wishes it had a Beckenbauer or a Villar Llona stowed away somewhere, if only as insurance against politicking.