David Beckham to present FIFA with England's 2018 World Cup bid

England must wait until 2 December to discover if their bid is successful and Beckham hopes they will have already fulfilled one part of his dream.

In an open letter on why he believes England can win the right to host the 2018 World Cup, Beckham said: "Hopefully this year we will win the greatest prize in sport twice, by winning the World Cup on and off the pitch."

The 35-year-old, who was ruled out of this summer's tournament in South Africa with a torn Achilles, is leading the five-strong England delegation today. The former England captain will be accompanied by Football Association and bid chairman Lord Triesman, bid chief executive Andy Anson, Britain's FIFA vice-president Geoff Thompson and Nothemba Bambiso, a 17-year-old South African who lives in a children's home and coaches in an FA-backed township project.

Beckham says it "an amazing honour" to be chosen to lead the delegation and

added: "As a player nothing could possibly beat playing in front of your own fans in your own country at the World Cup and I hope our players of the future will be fortunate enough to experience this."

The next milestone in the bid process is FIFA's technical inspection at the end of August. This ended in tears for England's ill-fated 2006 campaign when they were judged worse than South Africa and Germany.

This time around, however, England bid officials are confident they will suffer no such setback.

Ian Riley, the director of England 2018's technical bid, had the same role for South Africa's bid for the 2006 and 2010 tournaments and has been careful to ensure there will be no repeat.

He said: "I genuinely believe we present a low-risk option to FIFA. One of the biggest risk profiles of staging any major event is construction and we have a really good balance of existing stadiums and new builds and I think that alleviates any risk concerns that you may have."

It is expected that 2018 will go to Europe, where Russia plus joint bids by Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium are up against England. The other countries expected to fight it out for 2022 are Australia, United States, Qatar, Korea and Japan.