England head to the USA, Canada and Mexico next summer as one of the World Cup favourites and, ahead of Friday’s draw, FA chief Mark Bullingham is relishing the opportunity
Mark Bullingham and Thomas Tuchel(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel has given England “brilliant energy” and will do everything possible to win the World Cup. Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham has promised no stone will be left unturned in terms of preparation.
And Bullingham firmly believes that Tuchel has given England a huge chance of winning the senior men’s trophy for the first time since 1966.
England boss Tuchel will be at Friday’s draw in Washington along with Scotland ’s Steve Clarke to discover their opponents for next summer for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Tuchel, who is on an 18 month contract to deliver the trophy, led England to a perfect qualifying campaign with a 100 per cent record without even conceding a goal.
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Bullingham said: “We’re really excited about where we are. Thomas has come in and really hit the ground running brilliantly.
“You can feel the brilliant energy in the camp and see that the players are really responding well to him. So we’re looking forward to the tournament.
“We know for European teams it’s obviously going to be hard in the heat, but we’ll do everything we can and we’re looking forward to it.
“I think we’ve had some brilliant squads over the years. I think we’ve got a brilliant squad now and we’ll be in amongst the top teams.
“But there are some fantastic other teams there too. So of course we can’t control anything other than the fact we’ll be doing everything we can to do well.”
England will discover their opponents on Friday but will not know their dates, schedule and venues until Saturday when the full details will be revealed.
However, England will use Inter Miami’s base as a training camp and will also play two friendlies in Florida to adjust to the scorching temperatures.
Tuchel led England to a perfect World Cup qualifying campaign(Image: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
They want to have Kansas City as their preferred training base but that will be draw dependant as to where they play their games.
But Bullingham insists that the FA will be fully prepared and give Tuchel full backing when it comes to support and training bases.
Bullingham added: “In terms of logistics, it’s going to be a difficult tournament for every team. The distances involved, the climate changes, the altitude changes, just provide extra challenges.
“But it’s the same for everybody and you’ve just got to take that and do what you can. We think we’ve got a really clear plan and we’ve mapped out obviously every eventuality depending on where we get drawn.
“We’ve got a plan, as every leading country will have, to acclimatise and to give ourselves the best chance. I think we’ve got a brilliant team that’s put together some brilliant base camps and we’ll be doing the same again and looking forward to the tournament.”
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