England fans' spokesman Mark Perryman believes the resignation of Football Association chief executive Ian Watmore is very bad news for the country's hopes of staging the 2018 World Cup.

Although the bid team has a separate CEO in Andy Anson, Perryman insists Watmore's exit will sit very badly among the 24-man executive committee of FIFA who will vote on who should host the 2018 and 2022 finals in December.

Perryman said: "It's not good for football. I don't think it has much effect on this World Cup campaign but I certainly think it has a direct effect on the 2018 bid.

"There are only 24 people in world football who vote on this and one of the things they will be looking at is the state of the home FA.

"I don't think it does our bid any favours at all and certainly Spain and Portugal will be making a nuisance of themselves in terms of this news, and who would blame them?"

Perryman was impressed by Watmore in his dealings with him, but thinks he quit his post because he was losing the battle to make the FA the central power base in the English game.

"I felt he was a real politician in the sense that he could see the real power struggles within football and was very aware of what he was up against," Perryman added.

"He seemed to be determined to shift the balance back to the FA being responsible for football, which is what a lot of fans want.

"It seems to me he lost that battle and he wasn't prepared to serve out his time on the losing side.

"Fans aren't particularly bothered who is the chairman and who is the chief executive and so on but they do want the FA to run football. This is further evidence of that power being eroded."