2018 World Cup bid sought Qatar voting deal

One email said: "The advice from the ambassador in Doha is that, subject to anything that happened at that meeting, we should ask the Duke to be kind enough to speak to the Emir on the phone as soon as is convenient and before 23 April in order to seek his support for the England bid."

It is not known if any meeting or phone call took place.

But in other emails, it was revealed how the Duke of York - the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment since 2001 - was planning to meet with the Emir's wife Sheika Mozha.

In October, the Emir made a state visit to Britain where it was hoped he would discuss the countries' World Cup bids with the Prince of Wales, though a statement from Clarence House denied that any voting alliance was discussed.

The Duke of York's press office has denied that any lobbying with Qatar was carried out.

The FA has declined to comment on the emails or on its campaign voting strategy, though one source defended the approach saying this was what was needed to try and win.

What this information shows is that while other bids such as Spain and Portugal were investigated by Fifa for voting collusion, England was desperately trying to do its own deals to win the World Cup.

However the tactic was to prove unsuccessful with England gaining only two votes as its bid was eliminated in the first round.

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