England go into the last frantic days of campaigning for the 2018 World Cup just behind their chief rivals - but not out of the contest yet.

The strategy to win hinges on England securing a strong first-round showing. The bid with the fewest votes will then be eliminated - likely to be Holland/Belgium - and England would then pick up their votes for the second round of voting.

For that strategy to work, much rests on winning the support of Jack Warner, the FIFA vice-president and government minister from Trinidad who wields such influence on the outcome.

That explains why Prime Minister David Cameron called up Warner last week while the FIFA vice-president was on a tour of a defunct sewage plant in his native island to invite him to a one-on-one lunch in Zurich ahead of the vote by the 22 FIFA members on December 2.

Warner is president of CONCACAF and he and the federation's general secretary Chuck Blazer will vote together - and possibly Guatemala'sRafael Salguero would follow suit. They will only make their decision on who to back 48 hours before the vote.

If England can count on the votes of Warner and Blazer, that should see them comfortably through the first round and then hope to claim two or three more votes from Holland/Belgium who are likely to be eliminated first.

They also need the backing of Korea's Chung Mong Joon, and that is by no means in the bag.

The second round of voting then appears to be very finely balanced between England, Spain/Portugal and Russia, the bookmakers' current favourites.

Warner told Cameron in the phonecall that Russia remain England's main rivals and that looks to be the case if they go head to head in the final rounds.

But Spain look to be in the strongest position in the early rounds - especially if as has been suggested they have a votes deal with 2022 bidders Qatar.

How the first round voting could go:

1st rd: Spain/Portugal - eight votes: Angel Villar Llona (Spa), Julio Grondona (Arg), Ricardo Terra Teixeira (Bra), Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qat), Worawi Makudi (Thai), Nicolas Leoz (Par), Hany Abo Rida (Egy), Rafael Salguero (Gua).

Russia - six votes: Sepp Blatter (Swi), Marios Lefkaritis (Cyp), Jacques Anouma (CIV), Franz Beckenbauer (Ger), Issa Hayatou (Cam), Vitaly Mutko (Rus).

England - five votes: Geoff Thompson (Eng), Senes Erzik (Tur), Jack Warner (Tri), Chuck Blazer (USA), Junji Ogura (Jap).

Holland/Belgium - three votes: Michel Platini (Fra), Michel D'Hooghe (Bel), Chung Mong Joon (Kor).

2nd round: England would then need Platini, D'Hooghe and Chung to get behind them to oust Russia. Platini and D'Hooghe should be reliable votes.

Final round: England probably have more chance if they could get to a final round and go head-to-head with Spain/Portugal rather than Russia.