| Italy-Serbia Match Called Off Due to Violence The European Championship qualifier between host Italy and Serbia in Genoa was called off after seven minutes of play after Serbian fans threw flares and fireworks onto the field. feeds.nytimes.com |
The Fiver | An audience of befuddled bingo players in Borris-in-Ossory parish hall | Paul Doyle Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm(ish), or if your usual copy has stopped arrivingOUT OF THE FRYING PANTo the exalted names of Shankly, Dalglish, Barnes and Biscan, Liverpool fans can add that of another hero: Floyd. Not Keith, Pink or Pretty Boy, but Justice. Because Mr Justice Floyd is the high court judge who today paved the way for Liverpool to send Tom Hicks and George Gillett back to whence they came, with jeers in their ears and a £140m pain in their posteriors. The sale of Liverpool to John W Henry now looks like going through, and what the undignified and at times extremely boring brouhaha of the last few months has told us is that the likely new owner would be well-advised not to renege on any promises he makes to the club's fans or, if he thinks he must or just wants to because he can, then he'd better not renege on any contractual commitments to the banks, the swine.It was the Royal Bank of Scotland who took the case against Hicks and Gillett that led to today's verdict. The bankers insisted that, by trying to reconfigure the club's board to block the sale to Henry's investment prop, the pair breached the contract that they had signed with the bank as a condition for receiving extended credit. Effectively they retorted by arguing 'but we'd get more money if the board accepted a better bid, waaah! Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah".The judge found in favour of the bank and imposed an injunction on the owners to prevent them rejigging the board. "The owners do not have an absolute right to veto a sale," gabbled Floyd before ordering those chastened owners to pay the bank's costs (up to £500,000) and adding that an appeal against his decision would be "inappropriate".As a result of the ruling, the three board members who are not Hicks and Gillett have convened a meeting for 8pm tonight, during which they are expected to give a final thumbs-up to the sale to Henry, and a satisfying two-fingered salute to the former owners. "We said at the outset we'd find the right owners for Liverpool, I think we've done that," hurrahed Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton. "I think Liverpool Football Club can look forward to a bright future."Crucially, that opinion is shared by the world's foremost readily-available composer of elevator anthems, Chris de Burgh. "I'm delighted by the judge's decision in the high court action involving Liverpool Football Club," crooned De Burgh to an audience of befuddled bingo players in Borris-in-Ossory parish hall. "In spite of what may have been the best intentions, Hicks and Gillett have been catastrophic for the club, they've been like unwanted houseguests who overstayed their welcome," continued the songster by popular demand. "It's time for the club and its millions of supporters to move on, hopefully to a brave new beginning and put Liverpool back where it rightfully belongs, at the top of the Premier League," yahooed the bard, seemingly unaware that the next step in Liverpool's other sorry saga - the one that's been unfolding on the pitch - will be a derby defeat at Everton.QUOTE OF THE DAY"Only a bazooka could have restored calm" - Italian managers' association president Renzo Ulivieri in-no-way-over-reacts to the trouble caused by Serbia supporters that caused their Euro 2012 qualifier in Italy to be called off after just seven minutes. Incidentally, the alleged ringleader of the Serbian ultras was subsequently arrested after being found hiding in the baggage hold of a supporters' bus and then identified by the tattoos his balaclava failed to cover.HOLDING THE LINE8 October: "I'm working on guiding the team out of this situation and strengthening the players. In the long term, perseverance leads to success. We'll experience negative moments in the future too, but we must hold the line" - Stuttgart boss Christian Gross.13 October: Stuttgart sack Christian Gross.GET 66 POUNDS' WORTH OF FREE BETS WITH BLUE SQUAREClick here to find out more.FIVER LETTERS"Re: masochistic readers following the rolling Liverpool blog from the high court (yesterday's Fiver). It was actually far more exciting and eventful than Liverpool's recent sporting endeavours" - Michael Curtis."If Lord Ferg is under the impression that Dimitar Berbatov is the only footballer who can solve a conundrum (yesterday's bits and bobs), he obviously hasn't heard of Clarke Carlisle" - David McGuire."Was the word 'orevrated'?" - Andy Korman.Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver now.BITS AND BOBSEngland left the field to a chorus of boos at Wembley last night following their 0-0 Euro 2012 qualifying draw with Montenegro. "This is football. It's not like boxing where you win by punching the opponent more," noted Fabio Capello sagely.Manchester United fans are planning an anti-Glazers march from a pub they are planning on going to anyway to the Tottenham game they will be going to anyway on 30 October.Meanwhile, said United supporters are expecting a 25% increase in ball-retention after Anderson said he wants to do one. "I am good in Manchester but I'd like to return to Portugal and my preference would be Porto. I love the country," he sobbed.Dirk Kuyt could be sidelined for "a long time", according to the Holland manager Bert van Marwijk, after suffering "very serious" ankle knack.Uefa is to investigate the aforementioned violence that forced the abandonment of Italy v Serbia. "The sanctions that are available range from a reprimand or fine, up to a stadium closure or 'disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions'," threatened a Uefa suit.Wigan Council have relented after an angry reaction from the town's football fans and replaced new signposts which omitted any reference to the Latics. "It was a clearly discriminatory act to focus solely on the rugby," fumed supporter Andy Wolstenholme, after the council added new messages reading "Wigan Warriors, Super League champions 2010" underneath their 'Welcome to Wigan' signposts. The original ones - describing Wigan as "home of Premiership football and Super League rugby" - have been bolted back on.And Blue Square South strugglers Thurrock have snapped up Portuguese winger Joao Miguel Martins Pais De Carlos from neighbours Brentwood Town.STILL WANT MORE?Why do Polonia Warszawa and Cracovia Krakow's fans get along so well? What about Dinamo Kiev and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk? This week's Knowledge has the answer.They might not be up there with Dalglish, Barnes and Rush but Broughton, Purslow and Ayre are Liverpool fans' newest heroes after beating Statler & Waldorf in court, whoops Sachin Nakrani.If England players stopped pretending Peter Crouch was a human signpost with Lamp It Up To Me written on his forehead they may start playing some decent football, harrumphs Paul Hayward.Meanwhile Richard Williams reckons Fabio Capello's tactical nous and discipline is all well and good, but he still can't make England's ageing shufflers run any faster.SIGN UP TO THE FIVERWant your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up.SCOUSERS AND MINERS CELEBRATING? HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIEPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Canadian women's team balances experience, youth Youth and experience. Those are the two watchwords surrounding the Canadian women's team as it prepares to compete in the 2010 CONCACAF World Cup qualifier in Mexico. cbc.ca |
BBC Makes New Allegations Against FIFA Officials ZURICH (Reuters) - An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) accused three FIFA executives of taking bribes in a programme to be aired on Monday, three days before the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups are decided. feeds.nytimes.com |
Football League: your thoughts QPR's victory failed to disguise Cardiff's superiority while a former Arsenal trainee took Dover to the third round of the CupIt seems Neil Warnock and Dave Jones might not like each other that much. At the very least their post-match press conferences at Loftus Road after Queens Park Rangers' 2-1 top-of-the-table Championship victory over Cardiff City provided a bracing alternative to the usual comfortable clubbiness, with both managers carping on about unawarded penalties and launching pre-emptive strikes towards whatever the other might suggest in their absence.Jones in particular was incandescent over Kevin Friend's failure to award a penalty in the 85th minute for what looked like a trip on Jay Bothroyd. He even suggested Cardiff might have gone on to get a winner. If this seemed optimistic you could understand his frustration. Cardiff were the better team overall, if not in terms of goals scored and territory in the second half, then in terms of passing and controlled football.Their dominant spell towards the end of the first half provided the classiest passage of the match and of the two teams it is Cardiff who look currently better equipped to thrive at the higher level if – or probably when – they both get promoted. Rangers are unbeaten because they have an excellent defence (and they should hurl a percentage of their transfer trust fund at buying Kyle Walker from Tottenham), because they have great energy and purpose and are expert at set pieces. Cardiff have more clarity to their style and, already, a dusting of class in midfield and attack.Having said that, the match was settled by a moment of brilliance from Adel Taarabt, the Moroccan who is entrusted almost single-handedly with providing a gloss of butterfly-ish guile to Rangers' attack. Taarabt's winning goal was expertly taken. It was also typically Taarabt-ish in that it was the high point of a scattergun performance. He is a Championship-level attacking genius: give him 10 chances to create something and one will end up in a wonderfully worked goal. At a higher level he will rarely get such a wealth of opportunities.Craig Bellamy was also excellent today, and altogether more direct in style. Not yet fully fit, he worked hard, looked typically jet-heeled and finished neatly after a terrible mistake by Kaspars Gorkss. Bellamy will get sharper: if he stays fit it he has the dead-eyed quality to light up the Championship and ensure that, of these two, it is Jones who leads the way in May. BRTalking points• The decision for Hull City to play in white today was either inspired or absurd, depending on your perspective. Their game against Middlesbrough took place in a near-blizzard, meaning that players were often hard to pick out against the snow. Many felt the game should have been called off, but those fans who chose to tough it out at the Riverside were treated to a richly entertaining game, which ended in a 2-2 draw.• At one point this looked set to be the day of the underdog in the second round of the FA Cup. With more than 80 minutes gone, FC United, who currently play in the seventh tier of English football, led 1-0 away to the League One leaders Brighton, while the Conference National side Tamworth were 2-1 up away to Carlisle United, another League One side. But FC United, playing with 10 men from the 70th minute after the sending off of Scott McManus, were eventually pegged back and eventually needed a Sam Ashton save from Elliot Bennett's penalty deep into stoppage time to preserve a draw that earns them a home replay. Tamworth were less fortunate, conceding twice in the last four minutes to lose 3-2.• One non-league side was able to complete their upset, however, Conference South Dover Athletic beating League Two Aldershot through two goals from the former Arsenal trainee, Adam Birchall. The striker hadn't scored since his team's first-round win over Gillingham, but he seems to be enjoying the FA Cup run – including the qualifying rounds he has now scored 11 goals in this year's competition. Dover weren't the only non-league side to reach the third round today, though – in an all-Conference National clash, York City beat Darlington 1-0 to reach the third round. PBQPRCardiff CityChampionshipFA CupBarney RonayPaolo Bandiniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |