Ah well, looks like we’re off to Russia for our holidays in 2018! Unfortunately, despite all the hard work of everyone involved in the bid for England to ge the World Cup in 2018, we’ve been unsuccessful this time around, but at lease we all know that we gave it our best shot.

Umbro, as an official partner of the England 2018 bid, shares the nation’s disappointment at not winning the right to stage the 2018 World Cup. Martin Prothero, Senior Vice President of Football at Umbro, says: “We praise the efforts of the bid team who did absolutely everything to show why England should stage the most prestigious football tournament in world football. It was an immensely strong bid and I praise the bid team for their professionalism and passion from the very start of the process right up until the final decision. As a football fan, I’m disappointed at the result but our congratulations go out to Russia for winning the right to host the event and we wish them every success.”

After months of plans and campaigns, it’s just a week until we find out whether England will win the bid to host the 2018 World Cup. As official partners of the bid, we’ve been backing it for a while, and we obviously think England is the perfect place for the World Cup to take place – and to prove it, we enlisted the help of some famous friends to add their support and tell us in 18 seconds why they think England should win. Here’s some of our favourites…

Noel Gallagher

Robbie Williams

Boris Johnson

Tom Meighan

Michael Owen

There’s plenty more videos that people have submitted over at our special 2018 YouTube channel, check them out here. And be sure to keep supporting the bid until next Thursday, when the result will be made.

As the delegation arrive in Manchester today, we thought it would be the perfect chance to show our support for England’s bid to host the World Cup in 2018 here at Umbro. So we held our own ‘wear your shirt to work’ day, with some classic and current kits being worn today to show our support – check out these pictures of the Umbro staff who made the effort! Also, check the rubbish attempt by those in the photo below at pretending to be working!

If you want to show your support for England’s 2018 bid, don’t forget to visit our special website, where you can win a VIP trip to Wembley.

As our second-highest international goalscorer, it’s fair to say that Gary Lineker qualifies as a man who knows his stuff about England. That’s why we’re extremely pleased that he’s backing our bid to host the World Cup in 2018, the latest in a long line of footballers, celebrities and fans to do so. Everyone backing the bid has recorded their own short clip, in which they say why they think England should get the prize, click on the clip above to see what Mr. Lineker has to say.

We’ll have plenty of activity over the next seven days, as it’s the official Back The Bid week, where we want you to give the campaign as much support as possible. You too can record a video and upload it to our special 2018 website – and there’s a pretty cool prize on offer for the best ones we receive. How does an all-expenses paid VIP trip to Wembley to watch England in action sound? If you want to me in with a chance of winning, get your videos uploaded now!

Big names from the music world such as Noel Gallagher and Kasabian’s Tom Meighan have already signed up to say “I’m In” and support England’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and we’re very excited to reveal the latest celebrities who are also giving their backing.

Pop superstar Robbie Williams, Mayor of London Boris Johnson and top DJ Goldie have all filmed 18 second movies in which they give their reasons why they think England should host the 2018 tournament. You can check out their efforts below.

We’ve also been filming plenty of England fans up and down the country who have been throwing their weight behind the campaign – you can see all the videos over at the special England 2018 website. Remember, you can win a great prize just for uploading your video – VIP tickets to an England Euro Championship qualifier later this year. If you fancy being in with a chance of winning, and if you think you can do a better job than Robbie, Noel and the rest, head over to the site now to upload your effort.

Last week we announced that we’d joined the campaign to bring the 2018 FIFA World Cup to England, with a host of top celebrities and footballers pledging their support by proclaiming “I’m In”. Each person who’s been filmed as part of Umbro’s campaign has been giving their opinion on why they think that England should get the World Cup in 2018, and we’ve had some great ideas so far – particularly as they have to be squeezed into 18 seconds!

It’s not just about the celebrities though. We’re looking for people from all walks of life to get involved, say “I’m In” and upload their own video to the Umbro website. If you can say why England should get the World Cup in 18 seconds, you could help to secure the world’s biggest sporting event for your country. It’s not just that though – we’ve also got some great prizes on offer for the best videos that are uploaded to the site. We’re giving away VIP seats for you and a friend to England’s big qualifying match against Montenegro in October. So if you want to be in with a chance, get filming yourself!

To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, we’ve got a couple of new videos for you to check out. First of all we’ve got our friend Katers17, one of YouTube’s most popular video bloggers, to tell us “I’m In”. Then, we’ve got a video created by us, the Umbro team, giving some great reasons as to why England should get the World Cup. We think it’s pretty obvious which one’s better, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide…

Earlier today we announced that Umbro had signed up as an official partner for England’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a fantastic opportunity that we’re looking forward to being involved with – a host of our famous friends have already declared their support by saying “I’m In” over on Umbro.com. You can also pledge your support now over on the site, by uploading an 18 second video explaining why you think England should get the World Cup. Michael Owen is one of the people who’s already filmed his video, here’s what he had to say:

We also spoke to Michael about the bid, the “I’m In” campaign and why he thinks England should host the 2018 FIFA World Cup – here’s what he had to say:

What’s the “I’m In” campaign all about?

“We’re trying to encourage people to get interested and get involved in the bid to bring the World Cup to our country in 2018. There’s prizes to be won, there’s plenty of celebrities who’ve put their videos up on the site, and there’s an opportunity for anyone to put their own videos up there, saying why you think England should get the World Cup. The prizes are great as well, you can get tickets to Wembley for the European Championship qualifiers later this year, so it should hopefully drum up some interest, and we’ll hopefully have a successful bid at the end of it.”

Why do you think England should get the World Cup?

“If we were to win the bid it’d do so many great things for the country. It’s been a long time since we hosted the event, and obviously that was a great success. We’ve shown with Euro 96 that we can host something today, I went to the England vs Scotland game then, and I remember all the grounds being full, and we’ve obviously got one of the best sets of stadiums in the world, the infrastructure is there. The fans are also some of the most passionate in the world, and we’re more than capable of doing it.”

We’re sure everyone thinks that their fans are the best, but what makes England fans special?

“You’re right, there are a lot of passionate fans around the world, I’ve played in virtually all the countries around the world, and it’s a fact that England are in that group that have really passionate fans. There are countries that aren’t passionate – they enjoy the game, but they wouldn’t get 40-50,000 people coming along to every game in the World Cup, or they might not even have the stadiums to fit that many fans in. We’ve got that going for us, and it’s just a fact that English people are passionate about sport and about football in particular.”

What do you think about the cities that have been chosen for the games if England were to be successful in the bid?

“There must’ve been a lot of thought that’s gone into choosing these cities, to make sure that it’s easily accessible for everyone in the country, so you’ve got a mix of northern cities, the midlands and some London teams, and then it also goes down to Plymouth. So it gives everyone the opportunity to watch a World Cup game. If you look at all the stadiums, they’re all great places to play football, with a lot of fans nearby who’ll come along to the games.”

What about the fact that both Liverpool and Manchester made the list? If you had to choose one or the other, which would it be?

“I don’t need to because they’ve picked both! With the teams in Manchester and Liverpool, it’d be daft if they left either out, because they’re some of the best teams and the best stadiums in the country. I’m sure with certain stadiums they would’ve wanted to get them in regardless, and then piece the rest around these jewels. You’ve got Wembley, then Manchester, Liverpool, Villa Park and obviously Newcastle right up north, they’re the ones that had to go in really.”

With London having the Olympics in 2012, do you think that’s a benefit for the bid or could it have an adverse affect?

“You could see it from both points of view. Let’s hope that the Olympics goes well. If you look back at Euro 96, that was a fantastic tournament, and it showed that we could host something like that. If 2012 goes the same way, then it’d give the whole country the confidence to go forward with this. You only do something like the World Cup once in a lifetime, and I think we’re as close as anyone to being in the position to hosting a major tournament like this.”

Do you think that playing in front of your own fans makes a difference for the players?

“It does. I was only 14 or 15 back in Euro 96, but I was lucky enough to play with some of the people who’d played in that tournament a couple of years after. All the things that they’ve said about it makes me wish that I’d been playing then, part of that buzz around the country and playing in front of the home crowds. Playing in a major tournament in front of your own fans must be fantastic, unfortunately it’ll never happen for me, but hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy it as a fan in 2018.”

To join our I’m In campaign and pledge your support to England’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, head over to Umbro.com now.

Today we can officially announce some big news – Umbro have signed up to be an official partner for England’s 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. We’re celebrating our involvement by launching our “I’m In” campaign, encouraging everyone to pledge their support for the bid, and if you head over to Umbro.com from 18:00 hours tonight, you’ll see that a load of people have already signed up to back the bid. Top footballers such as Michael Owen, Darren Bent and Alan Shearer have joined up alongside celebrities including Noel Gallagher, Norman Cook and Pete Tong by explaining why they think England should get the 2018 World Cup in 18 seconds. Here’s Noel telling us why he wants to see the World Cup here in England:

So how can you get involved? If you head over to Umbro.com from this evening, you too can upload your videos and tell the world why the FIFA World Cup should come to England in 2018. By saying “I’m In”, you can help convince people just how passionate we are about bringing the World Cup here. Just film yourself explaining why you think England should come out on top when the decision is made in December, upload it to Umbro.com, and you could help us bring the biggest sporting competition in the world to England.

That’s not all though – we’ve also got a great competition as part of the “I’m In” campaign. We’re got a VIP trip to Wembley to watch one of England‘s Euro Qualifiers up for grabs for the best video that’s uploaded, so get thinking and get filming yourself to be in with a chance of winning – show us how imaginative and passionate you can be in 18 seconds!

Check out Umbro.com for all the details on how to upload your videos, and check back here later for an interview with Michael Owen, where he explains just why he’s backing our campaign…