"If Vladimir Putin wants to do something then he does it really well."
Arsenal's Andrei Arshavin on the world's favourite shirtless hunter and his tendency to get what he wants.
"The most fundamental mistake we made ... is that we played it clean."
Australia's World Cup consultant Peter Hargitay
on their failed bid.
"What do you think motivates people - 14 of them, right, to vote for a country, the population of which is roughly the size of Zurich? To vote for a country that is the size of Fiji. To vote for a country where the infrastructure to play host to millions of fans still has to be created. I could go on with the list, but you go figure how could 14 men take that decision."
Hargitay again.
"Yes there is thieving and swindling because this has been going on in Russia since time immemorial and will probably go on forever. [But] the idea that we shouldn't have the World Cup because all the money will be stolen doesn't stand up. If it did, it would mean that we should never be given anything and just left to disappear in the tundra. Are we supposed to live in complete isolation because of this [corruption]? No, that won't do."
Ruski commentator Georgy Cherdantsev.
"Suffice it to say that the Fifa ExCo as a body could not have voted for England having been insulted by their media in the worst possible way at the same time. To do so would have been the ultimate insult [to Fifa]."
Executive committee member Jack Warner.
"The Sun trusts Fifa to put football first."
English tabloid The Sun in an open letter to Sepp and Co last Thursday.
"FIXED! FIFA BUNGS RUSSIA THE WORLD CUP ... Calls for corruption probe."
The Sun two days later.
