Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn looks to bid positives

Quinn was devastated by the missed World Cup 2018 bid

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has called for a focus on the positives to come from England's failed World Cup 2018 bid, both nationally and locally.

The city was one of two North East representatives looking to host the event, which Fifa awarded to Russia at a ceremony in Zurich on Thursday.

"We can utilise the great contacts that were made," Quinn told BBC Newcastle.

"All the connections and networking between people who can make this region a better place."

Quinn continued: "There's a lot of people in tears around here, you can understand why.

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"It became people's lives for 18 months, and ultimately when it was packaged off and sent to Zurich it was out of our hands and we were hopeful we'd done a good job.

"We were thrilled with the presentation and I think everyone was, everyone thought we had a great chance.

"Fifa works the way it does, that (the presentation) wasn't good enough for Fifa to be swayed, good luck to Russia of course but it's not easy to take."