Arsenal Demand £17 million for Arshavin.

Russia

Andrei Arshavin could be heading off to Italy, as his agent confirmed that there is a possibility that he could sign for Juventus.

The little Russian has been frustrating the Arsenal fans of late with his questionable on-field decisions, and a few small mistakes that have accumulated into heavy sighs and rolling eyes around the Emirates when the 29 year-old carelessly gives the ball away. It was only mid-2009 that Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp said that Arshavin had  "every chance of becoming a favourite of the London fans".

The former Zenit midfielders agent confirmed that a move could me on the cards,

"There's a possibility of Andrei's move to Juventus. But there are two things that can prevent this deal.

"First, Arsenal can win the Premier League this year. The gold medal of the English league is a dream of any footballer.

"Second is the financial ability of Juve as Arsenal are demanding no less than $26 million [£17 million] to release Arshavin.

"It's difficult for me to comment on certain items because he is a player who still has two-and-half-years on his contract with Arsenal and there are no formal offers.

But before we get carried away with the comments, lets just remember that Arshavin is most probably just in a dip in his form. Every player has them, and when you are low on confidence it takes a little while to get out of them. With the support of his manager, team mates and fans, Arshavin should be fine, after all, he is a quality player with impressive ability that caught Arsene Wenger's eye in the first place. His agent continued,

"In any case I think it's just speculation. Juventus could have taken Arshavin two-and-a-half years ago, but they didn't want to.

"The player is happy in London. There could also be possibilities to move in January but, I repeat, we are talking about a player under contract and for which currently there is nothing concrete."

A Prince, a Prime Minister and A Football Icon - But England Lose to... Russia?

Russia

England's dream of hosting their first World Cup since 1966 is over, as Russia won in their bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

England sent over the Prince and future King of England, the current Prime Minister, and a worldwide footballing icon, but FIFA were persuaded by Russia, whose bid was backed by oil billionaire and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, among others. It is bitterly disappointing or England.

Our bid was clearly, far and away the best bid. We have the brilliant stadiums and facilities, we have the hugely passionate fans, we have the hype, the excitement, the love for football. We know know it feels to lose, that is for sure - we lose in the World Cup competitions all the time, but it doesn't stop us from having the same extreme hype year after year. It is even more disheartening that England went out in the first round of voting; meaning that the likelihood is that England received less than 5 votes out of 22. There really is something wrong there - that suggests that England had the worst bid out of all of the bidders - which is clearly untrue.

There will be questions asked about how this could have possibly come about. The credibility of FIFA really has to be questioned. Especially if England were considered to be the worst candidates. We clearly put masses of effort into the bid, while the Russian president only seemed interested when they won.

Did money and corruption play a part in the result? Consider also that the winners of he 2022 bid were Qatar - a country who are, like Russia extremely rich with oil, but whose stadiums are far less developed and facilities far less advanced than England's. Both Russia and Qatar have a big job in building new stadiums, new airports, new stations, and a friendly football environment for visitors; they must do this to justify their wins.

FIFA will say that the countries were chosen because of what they can do in the future, and how much development the country will undergo as a result, but shouldn't they have chosen the best bid? The BBC may be blamed for their Panorama programme accusing certain FIFA members of corruption, but if there is corruption, it should be sorted; a blind eye should not be turned on corruption in football and FIFA, and this result hasn't done any good in excluding England.