If fears over Wembley Stadium’s readiness to stage the Cup Final on May 19 were not bad enough, the Football Association suffered a potentially even more damaging blow yesterday when it learnt of the prospect of David Beckham’s image being used to promote a rival bid by the United States for the right to host the 2018 World Cup finals.

Although the FA has yet to say officially that it will be entering the race, an announcement is expected this year, with the attraction of Wembley, at £800 million the most lavish and expensive stadium in the world, key to its hopes of success.

However, Sunil Gulati, president of the United States Soccer Federation, said that while his country was prepared to stand in as hosts for the 2014 tournament should Brazil, the favourites, not be ready, their real target was 2018. And with Beckham joining the Los Angeles Galaxy in the summer, it would be unthinkable that they would not seek to exploit the presence of the former England captain.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Gulati referred to the success of the 1994 tournament in the US. The average attendance of 68,991 remains a record. “We showed in 1994 that the United States is capable of hosting a terrific event,” Gulati said. “Now with the way the soccer landscape in this country has evolved, we would be in a position to put on a spectacular event.”

It has been assumed that after South Africa stages the 2010 finals, the 2014 tournament will go to South America, probably to Brazil — which has not played host to the event since 1950 — and return to Europe four years later. England’s plans for 2018 have already started, with the Treasury commissioning a report which concluded that the country was “well placed” as potential hosts. Since England staged the 1966 tournament, all the other main Western European countries — Germany, Italy, France and Spain — have done so at least once.

Gulati said that Fifa, the world governing body, was “very open” to a US bid, while Concacaf, the confederation of North and Central America and the Caribbean, was “very positive” about the idea. If Brazil is not ready for 2014, Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has hinted that the finals may move “north instead as the logical thing” and is clearly interested by the marketing potential in the US.

Soho Square cannot afford any slip-ups before Fifa decides on the 2018 hosts in 2011. Wembley has already been an embarrassment and yesterday the FA was forced to postpone a community day for 60,000 people at the new stadium. Originally scheduled for March 3, it will now be held on March 17. As a result, the women’s international between England and Scotland on March 11 will have to be put back.

The community event will be one of the two events needed to acquire a safety certificate from Brent Council. Alex Horne, the Wembley managing director, said yesterday: “We still remain on course to host the 2007 FA Cup Final but the FA will only \ once the stadium has been granted its general safety certificate.”

Another problem for Wembley National Stadium Ltd, a subsidiary of the FA, is a High Court case to be heard by the end of March involving Quintain, which owns the adjacent car parks. It is understood that it relates to about £500,000 that Quintain claims it is owed from 2001-06, plus how much the FA is prepared to pay for future car parking and crowd management.

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