WORLD CUP 2018/ 2022 BIDDING:FIFA EXECUTIVE committee members confirmed last night that the lingering backlash against the British media following explosive corruption allegations had counted against England and contributed to the bid team's humiliating defeat in the race to host the 2018 World Cup, won by Russia.

As details about the closed-door discussions at Wednesday’s Fifa executive committee meeting that preceded the first bout of bid presentations began to leak out, it emerged that England’s rivals and the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, had continued to use the issue as a stick to beat them.

Blatter, who backed Russia in a bid to stop the Spain/Portugal and Qatar double that he believed would be catastrophic for his re-election chances and further undermine Fifa's credibility, is understood to have mentioned the damage done to the organisation by the Sunday Timesand the BBC.

Angel Maria Villar Llona, the Spanish executive committee member, went further and rammed the point home.

He later returned to the theme in his presentation, declaring: “I love Fifa dearly but those I love the most are my colleagues in the exco.Recently we have been criticised by many media outlets. Unfortunately for them Fifa is a clean institution.”

Chuck Blazer, the USA Fifa executive committee member, said: “It didn’t create a positive environment for the England bid but it’s difficult to get into the minds of other people and know if it really was a factor.”

England’s bid team went to bed on Wednesday night confident they had done enough to secure the votes of “more than six” executive committee members. They were believed to be nailed-on pledges, rather than hoped-for votes.

Nipping in and out of their suite at the Baur au Lac hotel and full of nervous energy, the prime minister, David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham conducted a marathon lobbying session during which they saw 20 of the 22 voters.

The next day, they were being told that following a presentation that was the most compelling of the nine offered up to the Fifa executive committee, more votes may have swung their way.

So there was shock and disbelief in their eyes as they filed into the auditorium to be told by England’s one executive committee member, Geoff Thompson, that they had polled just one vote other than his, which could have been that of the Japanese delegate Junji Ogura or Issa Hayatou, the Cameroonian head of the African confederation.

Blatter, of course, steered clear of any recriminations and was eager to put the decisions to award Russia and Qatar, winners of the 2022 bid, in terms of expansion.

Never has the World Cup been in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world have been waiting for a long time so Im a happy president when we talk about the development of football,” he said.

Critics of Fifa, and there are many, will say the decision was all about the money but it should be noted that in the McKinsey report commissioned on projected revenue Russia scored bottom of the 2018 bidders and Qatar second to last of the five 2022 candidates.

There had been speculation in the build-up to this week’s events in Zurich that Fifa might be in the mood to choose safe options after running risks for so long but not a bit of it, as the executive committee chose two energy producing countries in the mood to splash some cash.

Russia proposed in its bid document to Fifa a massive project of stadium construction and renovation, with proposals for 16 stadiums, 13 of them new, at a cost of close on €3 billion – the largest figure among the four European bidders.

Qatar plans to renovate three stadiums and build nine new ones at a cost of €2.25bn including the climate-control technology that will be needed to keep the temperature on the pitch to 27 degrees while outside it is a scorching 50 degrees.

So after 68 years of only staging the World Cup in the Americas and Western Europe, Fifa has broadened the footprint of the world’s most popular sport to Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and at a breakneck speed.

Many will expect Fifa to turn back to the heartlands of Europe or perhaps to give the United States another chance in 2026 but after a week of huge surprises in Zurich it would be unwise to make too many assumptions.

A Caribbean World Cup anyone?

• Guardian Service