Dent will rejoin Andy Anson, who was chief executive at the ATP before being poached by the FA in November to head the World Cup bid.

 

Dent is currently head of corporate communications at the ATP, acting as spokesperson and dealing with global press enquiries.

 

Before joining the ATP he worked at the Women's Tennis Association and the Lawn Tennis Association.

 

The post had originally been offered to Philip French, the special advisor on sport to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham but he turned the role down.

 

Dent will join the bid next month and will be tasked with helping getting the message across as to why England should be chosen by world governing body FIFA to host the World Cup for the first time since 1966.

 

The race is set to be the most competitive in history with 11 bids having been received by the deadline on Monday.

 

England have been installed as the favourites by the bookmakers ahead of Australia and Russia.

 

But there are also bids from Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, South Korea and the United States.

 

There are also joint bids from Belgium-Netherlands and Portugal-Spain.

 

Egypt, who had said on Monday that they planned to bid, later withdrew.