Chancellor Gordon Brown has been accused of carrying out a "silly publicity stunt" as he personally backed the idea of England hosting the 2018 World Cup.
Kicking a football around outside the new Wembley stadium, Mr Brown claimed the tournament could help create "the greatest sporting nation in the world".
He was accompanied by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Sports Minister Richard Caborn on his high-profile visit.
The trip coincided with the publication of a Treasury feasibility study into the possibility of holding the 2018 competition on English soil.
Football's international governing body, Fifa, has yet to decide on the continent that will be awarded the championship and will not make their decision until 2011.
But Mr Brown said much of the infrastructure needed was already built.
"Everything is in place and we now have to go out and sell it and show that the enthusiasm of the young people is such that, if we win, this will be the greatest sporting decade for our country," he said.
"We (would) have the Olympics in 2012, the World Cup in 2018 and I think we would be the greatest sporting nation in the world because so many young people will want to be sports men and women of the future."
The Chancellor said it was time for the tournament to return to the UK: "I think there is great support for England having it 50 years after we won the World Cup in 1966."
But his backing was dismissed by shadow sports minister Hugh Robertson. He said: "Given that no decision on the 2018 World Cup is due until 2011 and that this should have been done on a cross-party basis, this can only be seen as a very silly publicity stunt."
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