An England bid spokesman confirmed a complaint had been made to soccer's world governing body and that it referred specifically to comments made by Russian 2018 bid chief Alexei Sorokin, rather than the Russian bid as a whole.

Sorokin's comments appeared in the local Sport-Express paper in which he spoke of London's high crime rate and levels of alcohol consumption.

However, FIFA's rules forbid competing nations to make any comments about rival bidders.

Sorokin was quoted as saying in the newspaper: "It's no secret that London has the highest crime rate when compared with other European cities, and the highest level of alcohol consumption among young people." The incident follows an investigation into newspaper claims that two FIFA executive board members were offered to sell their votes ahead of the decision on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.

FIFA is also investigating claims of collusion and vote swapping between rival nations for the 2018 and 2022 bids.

Russia and England are bidding for the 2018 finals along with joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands.

The United States, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Australia are the candidates for the 2022 tournament. FIFA will announce the winning bids on Dec. 2 in Zurich.
 

In Milan, Juventus winger Milos Krasic will miss Saturday's Serie A clash at AC Milan after being banned for two matches on Tuesday for diving to win a penalty in Sunday's 0-0 draw at Bologna.

Serie A said that after reviewing video evidence, it was clear there was no contact with Bologna's Daniele Portanova.

"The referee made an error because of a dive by the Juventus player," a statement said, adding Krasic must serve a two-game ban.

Vincenzo Iaquinta missed the resulting penalty after 36 minutes to partly placate furious Bologna players but Italian media has castigated Serbia's Krasic, who had made an excellent start to his Juve career.

The winger looked destined for a ban when team mate Alberto Aquilani admitted after the game that Krasic had "made a mistake" although others at the club defended the player despite the television evidence looking damning.

Italian soccer has used video evidence after matches to ban divers in the past and has been at the forefront of calls for world governing body FIFA to make use of technology while games take place.

Blonde-haired Krasic, a transfer window signing from CSKA Moscow, had quickly gained a place in Juve fans' hearts thanks to his driving runs and resemblance to former hero Pavel Nedved.

His absence for fifth-placed Juve against second-placed Milan has been made worse by news that Amauri will miss the game with an Achilles problem while fellow striker Iaquinta is highly doubtful with a knee injury.

Alessandro Del Piero, one away from breaking the club's Serie A scoring record of 178 goals at the age of 35, is likely to come into the side and lead the line with Fabio Quagliarella.