ALMOST £1m was wasted in the failed bid to bring the World Cup to the North East.

Just days after Sepp Blatter’s controversial re-election as FIFA president, it has been revealed city leaders spent a mammoth £880,000 on World Cup efforts.

As corruption scandals have continued to engulf football’s governing body, voices from the region have claimed England never stood a realistic chance of being selected as a World Cup host nation for 2018, or 2022.

Leaders of the North East bid have called for council costs contributed to the doomed bid, to be recovered.

Gateshead, Newcastle and Sunderland councils joined forces with Newcastle United and Sunderland AFC in the hope of securing a £58m pay day for the region, if England had been selected.

Their £880,000 bill – revealed under the Freedom of Information Act – included marketing fees of £500,000 paid to the FA.

It covered £27,000-worth of travel costs, including sending two officers out to South Africa as part of the bidding nations’ observer tour to see how best to win over the inspectors.

The money was also used to fund a visit by FIFA officials to the region, where they stayed at luxurious Rockcliffe Hall in Darlington, were flown around in a hired helicopter, and also ferried in a convoys of 4x4s.

The build-up to the event saw councils spend £142,000 on marketing and PR to promote the event, including bridge banners, venue hire, photography, pens, badges and stickers – all of which were required by strict FA guidelines.

Former Newcastle Council leader, David Faulkner, said the cash should be reimbursed by FIFA.

He told The Journal FIFA’s whole process is “deeply flawed” and claimed the authorities were allowed to spend the money despite “never” having “a chance”. Mr Faulkner said that he first suspicions of the whole process came when the delegates told him they were not the people who made the final decision, they just put together a report.