Moore votes needed to block Nat's net bid

A fierce campaign is threatening to stop Bobby Moore being voted into European football's official Hall of Fame.

On their website, the Football Association are allowing fans to choose England's representative for the honour, but an orchestrated e-mail campaign in the North West means 1966 World Cup-winning captain Moore currently trails Bolton great Nat Lofthouse by a few hundred votes.

The FA poll is due to close at midday tomorrow and Lofthouse's leading position is largely due to a campaign mounted by the Bolton Evening News.

Fans have responded in sufficient numbers to ensure that the man who scored 30 goals in 33 games for England in the 1950s has leapt to the top of the poll. Although Lofthouse's double against Austria in 1952 earned him the nickname The Lion of Vienna, Moore is forever associated with Wembley.

Over three years he lifted three trophies in a row there - the 1964 FA Cup and 1965 European Cup Winners' Cup for West Ham and, of course, the World Cup a year later. He died of cancer in 1993 at the age of 51.

Moore's former West Ham team-mate Harry Redknapp said today: "It's got to be Bobby going into the Hall of Fame. No disrespect to Nat Lofthouse, who was a great player, but there is no comparison.

"Bobby won the World Cup and was the ultimate England player."

UEFA are launching the Hall of Fame early next year to coincide with their silver jubilee and each member country is allowed to nominate one player.

The FA's head of communications Paul Barber said: "This is the fans' vote and it is a fantastic opportunity for them to have a say in such a major honour. Their choice is the one we will be representing to UEFA."