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27 December 2009 Pim Verbeek, the head coach of Australia’s football team, has hinted heavily that any player wanting to make it into his 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup finals will need to be playing club football at a decent level in Europe between January and the summer. “On May 11, I will […]

27 December 2009 As the economic downturn starts to nip at the heels of  Britain’s sporting economic juggernaut, the Premier League, Paul Hayward in the Observer theorises that the hard times equal greater equality. Leaving aside the fact that the current challenge to the ‘big four’ is coming most strongly from teams also owned by […]

By Nick Harris 26 December 2009 Denmark’s Nils Middelboe was attached to the Casuals and Newcastle before playing League football for Chelsea from late 1913. Photographs from the time show an awkward, apparently shy man with long skinny arms and a concave chest. But as his lengthy international career and authorship of coaching manuals showed, he […]

Exclusive By Nick Harris 26 December 2009 The VIP guest list for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will include a pioneering player who played for Coventry City, Cardiff and Barnsley among many stops in a colourful, controversial career that has also included fierce criticism of his native South African FA. Steve Mokone was […]

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has cleared Richard Gasquet to resume his tennis career, believing that cocaine got into his system after he kissed a girl in a nightclub. The press release from CAS on 17 December can be found here. And the full details of the case can be found here.

25 December 2009 Michael Vick is a 29-year-old quarterback with the Philadelphia Eagles but is better known to non-followers of the NFL as someone who was sent to prison for 23 months in 2007 for his key role in a dog-fighting ring. The Ed Block Courage Award is given each year to 32 NFL players, […]

25 December 2009 Jonathan Wilson wrote the book on the evolution of football tactics, and takes a typically fresh and thorough approach in this piece for The Guardian when looking at the future. Wilson suggests the poacher could be all but gone within 10 years . . . or making a comeback. Meanwhile, could North […]

24 December 2009 The best selling newspapers in the world are mainly based in Asia, where it’s already Christmas Day. And the major sports news story on Christmas Day 2009 in the world’s No1 newspaper (Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun) concerns Marcus Tulio Tanaka’s move from Urawa Reds to Grampus Eight.  The top non-Japanese newspaper in the world […]

By Andy Cole 17 December 2009 England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup will ultimately succeed or fail on the basis of 24 votes cast by Fifa’s Executive Committee (ExCo), so it was heartening to visit Nigeria this week and witness the enthusiasm for English football of one of those 24 voters, Dr Amos […]

By Andy Cole 10 December 2009 Without consulting any tables, can you name the team that had the best record in the group stage of the Champions League? The answer is Bordeaux, who won five of their six matches and drew the other in a tough section (Group A) that also included Bayern Munich and […]