Prince William, and some northern children get the bid rolling

While the Germans successfully used Heidi Klum to promote their most recent World Cup bid, England got its 2018 campaign rolling yesterday with the help of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and that Scottish chap who in temporarily in charge of the country until the next election.

The bid started with a video showing football at grass roots level (see the full version here), and then proceeded with a video message from Prince William and a speech from the PM, in which he failed to properly pronounce the word “football” - see [3.08] in the video above.

The Spoiler has yet to track it down, but apparently the bid video also included footage of the petulant kick that saw David Beckham dismissed in France 98. “It certainly wasn’t my idea,” insisted Mr B.

Other countries in contention for 2018 include Australia, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Holland, Belgium, Mexico and (despite hosting the tournament only thirteen years ago) the USA.

With the biggest and best league in the world, and an infrastructure that can easily cope with the demands of an international tournament, we think it’s high time that football came home again. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until December 2010 for a verdict from FIFA.

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Friday treat: A lost Heidi Klum photoshoot
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You won’t see a better video than this all week ever

This is Heidi Klum, the German supermodel and former WAG of QPR owner/ Renault F1 team head honcho Flavio Briatore. She really loves Guitar Hero. And Risky Business. And showing us her underwear. That is all.

[Video comes courtesy of your favourite motor sport website, Grid Crasher. Visit them for more pics of Heidi.]

Man with furry face meets another man with furry face

Way back in April, we told you how the most literate man in football, David Beckham, had filmed an appearance on Sesame Street. Said appearance will kick off the 39th season of the popular show in ten days time, and he will be joined in the opener by rotund funnyman Jack Black and German Seal lover Heidi Klum.

In his segment, Mr B tells Elmo about the word of the day ‘persistence’ - something that he is fully qualified to discuss in light of his England experiences.

See some Sesame Street puppets getting on with Playboy playmates and Supermodels after the jump…

This Italian soubrette is about to own a stake in QPR

Italian businessman is Flavio Briatore is known by most as the MD of the Renault F1 team and part owner of Queens Park Rangers. Among gorgeous women, however, he is known only as a breathtaking inferno of sexuality, on a par with the Brad Pitts of this world. This accounts for why the 57-year-old has