Lee was asked to give evidence in the on-going Parliamentary inquiry into football governance at a one-off session on why England performed so poorly in their doomed 2018 World Cup bid.

Although Lee was not part of the team that led England's failed £15 million ($25 million) bid, he played a significant role in Qatar's landslide 2022 victory, arguably the biggest upset in World Cup bidding history, and was therefore expected to be able to provide valuable insight into the pitfalls and caveats of going for major tournaments.

But the Select Committee chose instead to grill Lee largely on The Sunday Times' Qatar 2022 bribe allegations as opposed to focussing on England's bid failure.

Afterwards he received an official apology from the Select Committee for their angle of questioning.

Lee himself, who rejected the allegations, claimed he was not concerned by the nature of the questioning but said that he hoped the insight he had given into England 2018's failed bid would be taken on board.

"Personally I have no complaint about the hearing and clearly issues were raised which FIFA will look into," Lee told insidethegames.

"However, I do hope that the Select Committee's final report will contain some proper analysis of why England's bid was so unsuccessful and what they think the FA needs to do to improve their international performance in the future.

"We should not lose sight of that amidst all else that happened this week."

When eventually asked about England's failed bid by the Select Committee, Lee was highly critical of it.

"You have to have strong leadership," said Lee, now the chairman of Vero Communications, who also worked on Rio de Janeiro's successful bid to host the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics and is now representing Pyeongchang 2018.

"You have to have active levels of Government support.

"You have to show your bid can benefit the rights holders and you have to have a sense of purpose.

"Most of these were missing for the 2018 bid."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
May 2011: IOC member took $1.5 million bribe to vote for Qatar 2022 it is claimed
May 2011: Mike Lee to give evidence on England World Cup bid to Parliamentary inquiry