Radamel Falcao Available for Arsenal & Chelsea?

Premier League clubs will have been taking a keen interest in the appointment of FC Porto's Andre Villas-Boas as Chelsea manager, with some of Porto's players perhaps ready to follow in the 33 year-old manager's footsteps and join the Premier League. In particular, Porto's star striker, Radamel Falcao, who has been interesting both Arsenal and Chelsea specifically.

Chelsea would of course, be the immediate favourites, as they could use their new manager, Villas-Boas as bait, who could be a direct link and companion in a new country for Falcao. The 25 year-old striker had a fantastic season with Porto with his manager, and has a good relationship with him, as well as a clearly successful one, so if the offer of a partnership were to arise, Falcao, who has admitted that he would "like to experience" being at one of the "big English clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham" recently, would of course jump at the chance of signing for a top Premier League side.

Another factor which may end up swinging away from Arsenal and towards Chelsea in the race to sign Falcaou is his asking price. Falcao has a release clause in his contract of £26.5 million, which so far has not been matched, but if it were to be, Porto will have to allow negotiations to occur.

Arsenal, under the guidance of Arsene Wenger are often reluctant to spend big amounts of money, while the new Chelsea manager will most certainly be given a healthy balance by Roman Abramovich to propel the team to Champions League glory. However, Wenger has been given a substantial amount of backing by certain Arsenal shareholders this summer, so if Wenger were to see Falcao as a future Arsenal player, it seems he has the money to make it happen.


Arsenal are close to capturing Lille's Ivorian forward Gervinho, but as Nicklas Bendtner seems certain to leave the club, Arsenal may well be looking for some further additions to the front line, especially considering their previous bad fortune with injuries and bad form with van Persia and Marouanne Chamakh respectively. 


Likewise, with Chelsea's forward line getting increasingly older, as well as some whispers that Didier Drogba could be on his way, Falcao, who scored 38 goals in 42 appearances last season would be an excellent acquisition for the London side.
The players agent, Claudio Mossi said of any possible Chelsea interest:

"If Villas-Boas is the new coach of Chelsea it is normal for players that are closest to follow him."

"But at the moment I have not heard from anyone from Chelsea, although the player would like such a destination."

While he explained the situation about Arsenal and Tottenham's interest in Falcao:

"These clubs [Arsenal and Tottenham] are always interested, but they have been blocked by Porto's €30 million [£26.5m] release clause."

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