24 hours to save the bid: How England's 'Three Lions' - Prince William, Becks and Cameron - could yet bring home the World Cup
The final push was under way in Zurich today, just 24 hours before England discover if they will host the 2018 World Cup.
Anybody who tells you they know, for sure, is having you on.
There have already been too many twists and turns to discount anything.
But if body language, if mood music, has any merit or indication, then it could now turn out to be showdown between England and Spain/Portugal - with Russia the first major casualties of the FIFA war.
Forget the bookies and their latest odds-on quotes for Russia. Certainly that is the stance you would take if you had been at the Zurich Marriott yesterday.
Watching Russian bid chief Vitaly Mutko lurch between frustration and apoplexy as he made the Great Bear's final media pitch appeared truly insightful.
Mutko and the Russians had always been utterly confident and determined, focused on the inevitable outcome of victory.
But suddenly we saw a different face of Mother Russia. And it was not, by any means, a pretty one.
Not only was Mutko unable to confirm that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was coming to Zurich - "whether he comes or not is unimportant, what matters is that he is our biggest supporter" - but his intemperate attack on the FIFA-sanctioned economic study of the bidders and the deal struck between Spain/Portugal and Qatar signified a marked change in stance.
Russians, as a rule, do not moan or whinge. It is not an attitude the country expects or accepts.
But that was how it came across.
Mutko, clearly angered by the report from international management consultants McKinsey that ranked his country's bid fourth of the four 2018 bidders as he lurched into "tractor statistics" mode, still saved his real bile for their Iberian opponents.
He moaned: "Russia is one of the countries very concerned about possible collusion.
"It does not seem right that some candidates will do what is required, travel to every Confederation as invited but other countries make no efforts to promote their bid and suddenly become favourites. That is a situation that is not just."
Not just? When has Russia ever needed moral authority to underpin its stance.
Russians do not play cards and bluff.
They play chess. They manoeuvre themselves into a position of strength and incrementally, bit by bit, grind their opponents into the dust. Russians move in one direction - forwards.
Yet in Zurich they were defensive, on the back foot, seemingly preparing themselves for bad news.
And that was a message that helped increase the belief in Camp England.
While there was frustration at the timing of the much-vaunted Panorama probe into FIFA finances, the fact that the broadcast merely revisited old allegations allowed English bid chiefs to dismiss it, as summed up by David Dein's withering put-down: "It should have gone out on the History Channel."
Yesterday's meetings with CONCACAF head Jack Warner and African football chief Issa Hayatou - who has pledged to sue the BBC over claims he personally trousered £10,000 - increased the belief that the damage done to the bid had had been minimal.
Now it is about working the bars and the corridors, 24 hours that could make all the difference.
England now believe the Russia vote is flaky, that one or two can be peeled off even in the opening round of voting, but certainly afterwards.
The pitch will be a simple one, positioning themselves as the "Stop Spain" candidate.
Bid chief Andy Anson and his team know that Sepp Blatter will do all he can to prevent Spain/Portugal and Qatar winning, the FIFA President believing that defeat on a vote of his Executive Committee will make him appear weak, leaving him open for a full-scale leadership challenge next June.
Get Blatter on-side, retain his coat-tail vote - which still exists - smooth over any post-Panorama ruffled feathers and maybe, just maybe, the prize can be theirs.
It is not an unreasonable hypothesis.
England's technical case has now been intensified by the economic one that ranked the bid top of the four contenders.
Holland and Belgium will be stuffed by their inability to give FIFA the financial and legal guarantees required and if Russia are, as they appear, falling off the radar, it becomes a two-horse race.
If so, then it will be decided by one or two votes, on whether UEFA President Michel Platini goes with England or not, if Hayatou and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast can be persuaded to follow Blatter into the England lobby.
Tight as a drum, clearly. But suddenly a very different contest.
This is where England's "Three Lions" - Prince William, Prime Minister David Cameron and David Beckham - could yet prove the key players. All or nothing. Now or never. Tomorrow is too late. This is it.
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