England’s 2018 World Cup bid team is to go back to the Government for more — after being offered a £2.5 million loan to back the campaign.

Officials have hidden their disappointment that the budget for the bid faces a significant shortfall and are examining the terms of the offer from the Government.

The FA is spending £10 million funding the bid and there were strong expectations that the Government would come up with a grant of £5 million, particularly given the massive spending on the London 2012 Olympics. In spite of warm words of support from Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, the money has been slow in coming and when it did, it came in the form of a loan for half the sum for which the bid team had been hoping.

Andy Anson, the 2018 chief executive, defended the Government’s stance last night but he indicated that there are more negotiations to come before there is an agreement. “The funding situation has changed and we have moved on from when I was optimistic we would get funding,” he said. “The Government have offered us a loan for £2.5 million because I think they feel that in the current economic climate that is the way they would like to structure funding.

“I am pretty optimistic that they have made a sensible offer that helps the bid and we are now working with them to make it more suitable and appropriate.”

It is not known how stringent the payback period will be, nor the level of interest — if there is any. But it is yet another problem for Anson to deal with. The chief executive was limping yesterday, the result of an old football injury, as he attempted to clamber the many steps up to the iconic statue of Bobby Moore outside Wembley and the metaphor could not be more graphic for those who say England’s 2018 World Cup bid has been hobbling towards its goal.

But Anson steps up the pace today when he moves to head off more criticism that he heads an all-white, all-male, politically led campaign. He will announce a new Inclusivity Advisory group, a title that might raise the hackles of those who fear the power of political correctness, but the group, led by Paul Elliott, the former Celtic, Chelsea and Aston Villa player, will provide a crucial sounding board for communities wanting to play host to the 32 international teams at the 2018 tournament.

As well as 16 cities — from Newcastle in the North to Plymouth in the South — bidding to be hosts, the 2018 team is also looking for 64 training venues to enter the race. It means that dozens of towns and cities will get a chance to have the World Cup on their doorsteps, even if they are not staging matches. The reach to each corner of England could be staggering — as well as holding out the prospect of an economic impact worth £3.2 billion. Anson wants every section of the community to benefit.

“We want to make sure it is a focal point of the bid,” he said. “The communities we are working with are fantastically diverse. We have to engage with all areas of these communities.”

The inclusivity group is another step along a long path that ends in 14 months when Fifa decides which nation wins the World Cup for 2018. By then, Anson aims to have headed off the jibes of Jack Warner, Fifa’s powerful vice-president, that England’s campaign is lightweight with a powerful technical case and a sprinkling of celebrity.

David Beckham will be in South Africa in December for the draw for the 2010 World Cup finals and negotiations are being held with Buckingham Palace for Prince William, the FA president and an Aston Villa fan, to join the campaign at its key point.

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