Keane tells England to ‘get over’ Cup snub

ROY KEANE says England needs to get over not winning the right to stage the 2018 World Cup.

FIFA awarded the tournament to Russia on Thursday, with England’s bid receiving only two votes from FIFA’s executive committee.

The Ipswich boss believes that England, whose bid team included his former Manchester United team-mate David Beckham, should put the disappointment behind them.

“I think England needs to move on and not keep complaining about votes or what was going on in the background.

“Apparently England had a good bid, it just didn’t do it. Get over it, nobody died!”

The former Ireland captain would have welcomed an English World Cup, but says other nations deserve their opportunity.

“I felt that England had a good chance, but to be fair to the other countries they put in some good bids as well, and that’s the way it’s panned out.”

Keane feels England’s attempts to impress FIFA’s executive committee led to what now look like pointless away friendlies with the likes of Trinidad and Tobago.

The former Sunderland manager wasparticularly annoyed by that game in June 2008, which was presumably designed to win the favour of CONCACAF president Jack Warner — a man once described by Keane as “a clown” — as it led to striker Kenwyne Jones suffering a knee ligament injury.

Keane wonders whether those matches were worth their return. “It goes to show you can’t be dragging your players halfway around the world to play poxy friendly matches. What rewards did they get? Two votes, and one of them was their own. It goes to show, you’ve got to be careful who you’re dealing with.”

Keane’s Ipswich, who lined up a Carling Cup semi-final tie against Arsenal by beating West Brom in midweek, face Swansea at home this lunchtime looking to end a run of four Championship defeats.