David Beckham officially handed over England's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup finals to Fifa on Friday.

The former England captain, 35, was in Zurich to hand over the 1,752 page book to Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president.

"I'm here on behalf of our fans. Football runs through our veins. We are all brought up on it," he said.

"It's truly an honour to be here. On behalf of our team, the delegation and our fans, we present you with our bid book."

The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder, who will miss this summer's World Cup because of an Achilles injury, was accompanied by Football Association and bid chairman Lord Triesman, bid chief executive Andy Anson and Britain's Fifa vice-president Geoff Thompson.

"As a player nothing could possibly beat playing in front of your own fans in your own country at the World Cup and I hope our players of the future will be fortunate enough to experience this," added Beckham.

"The bid book contains all of the detail of how we would host the World Cup in either 2018 or 22.

"It shows how passionate we are as a nation for football, how our society is amongst the most diverse in the world with communities ready to welcome every team, how we already have fantastic stadiums, training grounds, transport and hotels which will enable us to stage a great tournament."

England are hoping to be given the rights to host the 2018 tournament, which is expected to be given to a European nation. Russia are in competition with the Football Association, while there are joint bids from Spain and Portugal as well as Holland and Belgium.

Blatter has previously described the English bid as the front runner, and revealed new Prime Minister David Cameron has already thrown his weight behind the bid.

"I received a phone call from the new Prime Minister, not only did he express his determination to be behind the bid but he is also behind the World Cup in 2010," he said.

Fifa will visit England at the end of August to visit the stadiums that have been put forward for the tournament.