England's 2018 World Cup bid has been "significantly harmed" by a newspaper investigation into the bidding process, says a key member of the campaign team.
A member of the Fifa executive committee previously claimed there would be no backlash against England.
But it now seems the Sunday Times probe into two members of the committee has left England with a mountain to climb ahead of the vote on 2 December.
"It has significantly harmed England's bid," a senior member told BBC Sport.
With four weeks to go to the decision, England's bid team has not given up all hope of turning the situation around.
But senior sources say that the prospect of any future media investigations into the conduct of Fifa officials - including a potential Panorama programme on the BBC - could be fatal for their chances.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9157121.stm
I think this just shows how morally and ethically bankrupt FIFA are. Just because most of the members are from banana republics doesn't mean they should be holding our free press against us. I thought the bid was supposed to be on which country is best suited to hold a football tournament not which countries won't prove that their grubby little palms need greasing.
This will just give Blatter and the rest of anti-anglo cronies the excuse to pass us for another 2 world cups.