Lord Triesman responded calmly last night to growing criticism of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

The FA’s independent chairman pointed to the “extensive work” and “incredibly satisfying” meetings that have been overshadowed by a dispute with Jack Warner, the Fifa vice-president, over a £230 Mulberry handbag.

The latest unedifying row with Warner concerned the bid team’s gift of a handbag to the wives of each of the 24 Fifa executive committee members who will decide in December next year the hosts of the 2018 tournament. After his wife initially accepted the bag, which she thought was a birthday gift, Warner sent it back to Triesman this week along with a letter claiming that, for reasons of politics rather than style, it had become “a symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment for me and my family”.

Triesman, whose position as bid chairman has also come under scrutiny over accusations that the role requires more than the two days a week he is able to devote, is confident that he has placated the influential Warner in a series of discussions this week. More significantly, he believes that he and Andy Anson, the chief executive, have made significant progress in lobbying other members of the Fifa executive committee.

“We’ve done some extensive work to meet with football leaders around the world and the response and warmth has been tremendous,” Triesman told The Times. “In the last two weeks alone we’ve met with Michel Platini, the president of Uefa [European football’s governing body] and Dr Nicolás Léoz, who is president of Conmebol [South American football’s governing body].

“In both cases, we spent a couple of hours on some interesting discussions and their questions about the bid. They were genuinely interested and attentive to the whole presentation. Of course, no one is promising anything but we had a really good, open discussion that can only be had with people who know we are serious.

“We have now visited most of the Ex-Co [executive committee] members and what we’re seeing is a process in which people are genuinely interested in what we’re trying to do. There is a real sense of privilege in meeting with the leaders of confederations who oversee projects from senior level right the way through to the grass roots and they are genuinely interested in what England has to offer.”

Warner suggested last month that England had erred with their “softly softly” approach to the bid, but the plan is to step up the lobbying process in the coming weeks. David Beckham will attend a series of campaigning events before the 2010 World Cup draw in Cape Town next month, but hopes of using next week’s friendly match against Brazil in Doha to lobby Mohamed bin Hammam, another committee member, are compromised by Qatar’s wish to promote its bid to host the 2022 tournament.