The fallout over England’s bid to bring the 2018 World Cup home rumbles on this morning with Seb Coe insisting the bid is still on course after he spoke to Sepp Blatter yesterday. Blatter told him to “tell their story, talk about the bid quality, the venues and why they are bidding”. Coe’s impression from the talks is that the bid will be judged on these things rather than the controversy surrounding the entrapment tape which was published in a Sunday paper.

Gary Lineker outlined his reason for resigning as a columnist from the said paper in a radio interview on the BBC yesterday. He said he felt he thought it was hypocritical to take a salary from the Mail on Sunday when they had clearly damaged England’s bid. Lineker is also a 2018 bid ambassador. Lineker also said he felt the Mail on Sunday had made a “gross error of judgement” in printing the story. Michel Platini has offered his support to Lord Triesman and said that while he feels the bid may have been damaged, England can recover. World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst feels that England’s bid will be judged on the strength and quality of the bid.

Transfer news is still running around like a headless chicken today, with the only deals done and dusted been David Villa’s move to Barcelona for 34m odd and Ben Foster’s move to Birmingham. The rest is speculation at moment, with any club with a few quid to spend been linked to the top players. Man City have had a 20m bid for James Milner turned down and their neighbours Man Utd are set to place a bid in the region of 28m to try and lure Aston Villa to part company with the England international. Barcelona are still on the trail of Fernando Torres with 70m seeming to be the price quoted. Their attempts to lure Cesc Fabergas from Arsenal seem to be floundering a little with Yaya Toure’s agent saying he won’t be moving in the opposite direction. Barca are only willing to pay 3om for Fabergas, but Arsenal are said to be looking for 80m. Slight difference there than.

Didier Drogba feels that he can win the golden boot at the World Cup. If he’s successful he can add it to his Premier League one and wear them next season. That might slow him down a bit. Nothing like a bit of confidence Didier. World Cup winning goalkeeper from 1966, Gordon Banks feels David James should be in the No 1 shirt during the tournament. And finally if you have made a small fortune from world cup spread betting, get yourself down to Harrods tomorrow. For the princely sum of 2million plus VAT you could be wearing the actual No 9 shirt worn by Geoff Hurst in the 66 World Cup final. The only man to have scored a hat trick in the final doesn’t actually own the shirt anymore. I’m sure he’s just a little bit sad about that.