Extra, extra! England's 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids are not doomed despite Lord Triesman's bitter, tape-recorded comments that he thought Spain was trying to bribe referees at the upcoming World Cup with Russia's help.

The Mail on Sunday published excerpts of Lord Triesman's dinner date with an attractive woman who claims to be his mistress and bloga about her sexual liaisons and her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Lord Triesman was boss of England's Football Association, and leader of England's bid to get either the 2018 or the 2022 World Cup. (The bidding for both events is simultaneous.) Over dinner, Lord Triesman told Melissa Jacobs that Spain approached Russia in a plan to bribe referees at the 2010 World Cup. If Russia could funnel the cash to the refs, Spain would back Russia's competing bid over England's.

Lord Triesman also badmouthed his Labour Party's recent ineffective election campaign. Scene watchers are amused by the irony of all this: Labour parachuted Lord Triesman, a lifelong union hack, into the FA job and the bid committee position because previous leadership at the FA had been forced to leave over sex scandals. As Jacobs exposes more and more intimate details of their alleged affair, the whole thing has a familiar ring.

Lord Triesman might be a yoga guru in his spare time: after jamming his foot in his mouth, he's now fallen on his sword—resigning hours after The Mail on Sunday published its report.

OK, so I claimed the 2018 bid isn't doomed. Here's why:

First, Europe looks very likely to host the 2018 tournament.

Second, of the European outfits, England seems to have the strongest bid. The stadiums are already in use; infrastructure around London is already in place for the 2012 Summer Olympics. England's compact nature makes it easy for fans to get in and get around. While I'd personally like to see Russia get the tournament (I'd have VIP tickets), the Russian bid looks a little unwieldy. The other bids are joint bids (Spain/Portugal; Holland/Belgium). Problems with joint hosting of the 2002 World Cup has left FIFA on record as leery of joint bids. 

Third, this scandal didn't drag out. Lord Triesman resigned hours after the story broke. The English FA sent groveling letters of apology to all and sundry. While Jacobs will get paid for her tell-alls in the tabloid press, the damage to England's bid has been contained.

Fourth, and this is soccer's dirty little secret, who doesn't think refs are occasionally bribed at the highest levels? Real Madrid and Dundee United were each cheated out of a place in a European Cup final by corrupt officiating. Marseille were banned from international competitions for a year in 1993 for rampant match fixing. In 2006, the Italian FA relegated Juventus, one of Italy's biggest clubs, for rigging games The same year, German ref Robert Hoyzer had a 29-month jail sentence confirmed by a German court of Appeals for fixing matches.

On the recent World Cup front, though nothing was proven, hosts South Korea are widely alleged to have bought their knockout games against Italy and Spain in 2002. The referee of the Italy game, Byron Moreno, was forced into domestic retirement in Ecuador the next year after some more shady officiating.

So a little bit of restaurant chitchat won't sink England's bid. It just sank Lord Triesman.