*** By Gary Hopkins 2 June 2010 . The occasion was the ‘Boston Soccer Party’ of 1993, otherwise known as the second fixture in the US Cup, a four-nation international tournament hosted by the US Soccer Federation and featuring the USA, Brazil, England and Germany. This particular match featured the USA against England on 9 […]

By Nick Harris 2 June 2010 An analysis of the strikers from Europe’s leading nations heading for South Africa – and their records at domestic level in 2009-10 – proves that Darren Bent is uniquely unfortunate in not being selected to be part of England’s 23-man squad. The 26-year-old Sunderland forward is the only footballer […]

By Nick Harris 1 June 2010 For an organisation that purports to represent the interests of everyone in the global game, Fifa has a habit of appearing rather elitist at times. Its regulations that the World Cup trophy can be touched only by “heads of state and former winners” hardly speaks of a people’s game, […]

By Andy Cole 28 May 2010 England’s phoney war of pre-World Cup friendlies has just one more skirmish left – this weekend’s match against Japan – but there are still questions to answer all over the pitch. The most problematic of those in my view is not a new dilemma but one of the oldest: […]

By Pete Wilson 19 May 2010 The mascots for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games were unveiled today: Wenlock (below left) and Mandeville (below right). A video of their backgrounds can be seen at the link here, and the same film is also available in other languages. Watch in French. Regarder ce en Français. […]

* KEN SKUPSKI is one of Britain’s best tennis players, a doubles specialist with 20 titles to his name whose breakthrough season was 2009, when he won twice at ATP events. Born in north-west England, he studied at Louisiana State University. His abiding passion away from the court is supporting Liverpool. Here in his debut […]

By Nick Harris 8 May 2010 A fake website used as part of the Higgins snooker sting has been taken down. Sportingintelligence understands that a legitimate, respectable company or group of companies whose details were used on the fake website to authenticate the sting – without their permission and under false pretenses – were not […]

* ELEANOR PRESTON spent 10 years travelling the world as a tennis journalist for national newspapers, notably the Guardian. She continues to work as a broadcaster and is also a media consultant and advisor to tennis players and organisations within tennis, as well as athletes and organisations across a range of sports. She is also […]

By Pete Wilson 29 April 2010 Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup will rest on no traditional footie bedrocks: it cannot lay claim to a deep footballing culture or heritage; the nation is frankly too hot and uncomfortable in its natural state to stage the event to the satisfaction of the competing sides; and […]

By Nick Harris 22 April 2010 Britain will hold a general election on Thursday 6 May. The current Labour government under PM Gordon Brown will either retain power or be replaced by David Cameron’s Conservative Party or Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. Another scenario is a hung parliament and a power-sharing regime; key posts could be […]