Rumors that a certain former England coach was on the verge of taking the helm of North Korea's football team, which qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 44 years, sent FootyFactor headquarters into a tizzy yesterday.

In the history of odd couples, we cannot think of a more far-fetched but perfectly harmonious pair than North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and Swedish hard man Sven Goran Eriksson.

This week FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said some pretty mean things about England's "lightweight" proposal to host the 2018 World Cup,  sending the bid's organizers into a defensive tizzy. Forget for a moment how some bureaucratic hack from a small Caribbean country could push the bid to the brink of defeat.