Even Germany could not have expected to win a shoot-out because somebody refused to take a penalty. By abstaining from the final vote to decide who would host the 2006 World Cup Charlie Dempsey, the 78-year-old New Zealander who represents Oceania on the FIFA executive, effectively sat in the centre circle while South Africa's last hope disappeared along a familiar autobahn.

The result was known some time before Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, made a great show of keeping everyone in suspense before announcing the winning bid. Either Franz Beckenbauer was being hugged because Germany had got it or he had just become the father of quins. But when the name of Deutschland appeared from within the sealed envelope there were boos from the body of the hall.

It was not merely a question of South Africa being disappointed, the whole process seemed flawed. Originally Oceania had wanted Dempsey to support the Germans with its one vote but he had always insisted on backing England so long as the campaign director Alec McGivan's little ship of optimism was still afloat. It was what he intended to do next that appears to have brought the poll into disrepute.

If Scotland's David Will, who provided England's only other vote in the second round, is right in saying that Dempsey was subjected to "unsustainable pressure" from other bidders, presumably including Germany and South Africa, from five o'clock yesterday morning, so much so that he feared his personal integrity would be compromised, then this was clearly not a free and fair ballot.

From the moment Dempsey announced, before any vote was cast, that he intended to abstain once England had been eliminated, South Africa's hopes had been holed beyond repair. Dissenting African votes did not help, nevertheless Danny Jordaan's campaign deserved a cleaner denouement.

These FIFA ballots are cynical affairs at the best of times but yesterday, when Will condemned the pressure put on Dempsey in one breath and in the next said that he always intended to switch his vote from England to Germany because he belonged to the European federation (UEFA), the rest of whose votes were always going to be cast for Germany, it became clear that the last thing taken into account was the ability of any candidate to run a successful World Cup.

Maybe the South Africans realised this more than England, who had a marketing team when the situation required something more than strident sales talk.

Blatter will need Third World votes when he comes up for re-election two years from now and wasted no time reiterating his support for the principle of Africa staging a World Cup. He hoped that FIFA would eventually "have the courage to trust a new continent instead of staying with an established footballing power".

Gary Bailey, the former Manchester United goalkeeper, and Terry Paine, once a fixture on the wing for Southampton, were both members of the South African delegation. "I don't know if we can make another bid," said Bailey. "Much of the money raised this time was from businesses, not taxpayers, and to run the thing again will not be easy."

Paine was scathing about Dempsey. "How can you sit on an executive, vote in two rounds and then not vote in the third?" he demanded. "I'd rather have lost by 13 votes to 11 or, if the votes had been tied at 12-12, let the FIFA president cast the deciding vote." If he had, Blatter would have gone with South Africa.

Jordaan's was the most heartfelt comment. "Africa is part of a world football family," he said, "and no family should feed one child and leave the rest to starve."

Europe, nevertheless, holds the baby yet again and if Will has his way this will not alter. Blatter might want the tournament to go around the member continents in rotation, which would mean England forgetting about another bid until 2022, but Will believes Europe should have every third World Cup.

It may take England 20 years to repair the bridges with FIFA and UEFA damaged by what has been a tactless and fruitless campaign. McGivan might blame the hooliganism in Brussels and Charleroi during Euro 2000 for influencing wavering voters within UEFA but Blatter said this had nothing do to with the way the voting went.

Germany commanded the vote they did because, whatever went on behind the scenes, they struck the right note with a carefully tempered bid while Beckenbauer's final presentation on Tuesday was a masterpiece of understatement. Now Germany need to start remembering how they used to win the cup.