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Inter risk losing top spot after Palermo stalemate
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01:00 » GuardianLeaders Bayern stunned by two late Frankfurt goals
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01:00 » GuardianReal Madrid fight back to go three points clear
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01:00 » GuardianRobin van Persie returns to Arsenal training
• Striker back after five months out with an ankle injury• Dutchman could play Champions League semi-finalsRobin van Persie returns to Arsenal to join full training this week. Having missed nearly five months of the season with serious ankle damage sustained on international duty with Holland, the striker is ready to rejoin his team-mates and attempt to regain match fitness before the end of the season."We sent our fitness coach to Holland where he has been doing his rehabilitation and we are told he looks very sharp," said the manager, Arsène Wenger, after Arsenal's 2-0 win...
00:35 » GuardianEgypt's Olympic football team postpones trip to Palestine
• Possible Israeli visas at issue• Politics and public opinion interveneA visit by the Egyptian Olympic football team to Palestine has been postponed, reported the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper last week. The team were due to travel to the occupied West Bank next Sunday to play a friendly against the Palestinian national team at the Faisal al-Husseini stadium in al-Ram, near Jerusalem. The visit had been approved by the Egyptian FA but garnered condemnation within the country, centring around the possible need for the players to be issued with Israeli visas."If our team go there...
00:26 » GuardianMutola moves into South African football
The 2000 Olympic gold medallist Maria Mutola has swapped the 800 metres for her first love – footballMaria Mutola was a dedicated footballer long before she won Olympic gold, playing alongside boys in the shanties of the Mozambican capital Maputo before going on to become a world champion athlete.After a glittering career devastating 800m fields across the world, in the process becoming the southern African country's only ever Olympic medal winner, she is now back to her first love. But not in Mozambique, the land that spawned the likes of Eusébio and Mario Coluna.In her adopted...
00:10 » GuardianAmy Lawrence on the French revival
With more managers than any other country still in the Champions League, France has much to shout aboutIt is one of the great anomalies of French football that no coach born on their soil has ever won the European Cup. Despite their reputation for innovation and education, and the fact the competition was conceived by the French, the closest they can claim is the citizenship of Helenio Herrera, the mastermind of two triumphs with Internazionale in the 1960s. Herrera, though, was born in Argentina, had Spanish parents, grew up in Morocco, and ended up taking a French passport, so the link is...
00:10 » GuardianPolice in China arrest referees on suspicion of match-fixing
• 2002 World Cup referee among suspects• Previously convicted official got 10 years in prisonChinese police have arrested three football referees on suspicion of match-fixing, including one official who presided at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Although it is not clear what penalties the three could face, another referee, Gong Jianping, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2002 for taking bribes.Lu Jun, who officiated in two World Cup matches, several Asian Football Confederation games and more than 200 Chinese league matches before retiring in 2005, was among...
00:10 » GuardianSaid & Done
Sepp's happy ethics; Vagner Love and an AT4 anti-tank gun; plus the Downfall parody troubling EcuadorHeal the worldHeadling the new Fifa annual report: "The 2010 Fifa World Cup™ will underline Fifa's commitment to a continent that has given the world of football so much ... The Win in Africa with Africa programme [to improve facilities, clubs and training] is part of Fifa's tripartite mission to develop the game, touch the world and build a better future." Headline figures from the report: 2009 spending on Win in Africa: £5m. Fifa's clear profit for 2009: £130m, from a total...
00:10 » GuardianReview of pay-TV rules may trigger price war
BT and Virgin Media ready to start price war as Ofcom forces Sky to cut the fees it charges other broadcastersThe cost of watching Premier League football and a host of other sports is set to tumble as watchdog Ofcom tries to ease the grip held by Rupert Murdoch's satellite empire on the nation's television viewing habits.Rivals including BT and Virgin Media are expected to mount a price war against BSkyB when the regulator forces it to cut the fees it charges other broadcasters for its Sky Sports channels this week. The price cuts should be in force in time for the next season.BT has hinted...
00:08 » GuardianEuropa League emerges from the dark
The round of 16 had goals galore and offered a welcome alternative to the Champions LeagueJust as the Carling Cup competition put this season's FA Cup in the shade, so the ugly duckling of the Europa League has just stepped out of the Champions League's enormous shadow to enjoy some fun in the sun.It would not be strictly accurate to say that Thursday evening's entertainment and Friday morning's quarter-final draw knocked spots off the Champions League, because Uefa's main tournament is shaping up well this season, with six different countries represented in the last eight (although...
00:07 » GuardianRed Knights plan to wrest control of Manchester United by June with £1.25bn bid
Group of wealthy investors plans to take club back from Glazers and distribute shares to fansManchester United supporters spearheaded by a group calling themselves the Red Knights are poised to table a £1.25bn bid for the club by June that will involve fans owning a majority stake.Under proposals being studied by the bidder's financial adviser, Nomura, around 30 wealthy Red Knights investors would take control of United by setting up a new company that would later invite fans from around the world to subscribe to new shares.The structure of the bid is designed to wrest control of United...
00:05 » GuardianMartin Peters: I can't see us ending 44 years of hurt
But for one clumsy foul, he would have gone down in history as the man whose goal won the World Cup. Martin Peters's volley into West Germany's net with only 12 minutes of the 1966 final remaining put England 2-1 ahead and should have assured him of that honour. Instead, Jack Charlton was penalised at the other end, the Germans equalised and it was Peters's West Ham colleague Geoff Hurst who was able to earn sporting immortality, not to mention a knighthood, by completing a hat-trick in extra time.
00:00 » The IndependentDenilson puts 10-man Arsenal top of the pile
Playing Imperial Commander to Chelsea's Kauto Star and Manchester United's Denman, Arsenal last night confounded the notion of a two-horse race by hitting the front of the Premier League chase. This race is not run of course and after the other two have had another outing today, they will be going head to head in Manchester on Saturday week. Arsenal will enjoy watching that one.
00:00 » The IndependentKranjcar adds polish to Tottenham's unfamiliar steel
Niko Kranjcar's goal 13 minutes from time established Tottenham as strong favourites to finish in fourth place in the Premier League, placing Liverpool under pressure to gain a point at least against Manchester United at Old Trafford today.
00:00 » The IndependentOutside the Box: Commentators do World Cup ditty but Motson's a turn-off
There will be an England World Cup song after all this year, recorded by an unlikely alliance of 11 television football commentators and the Cotswold Male Voice Choir, in aid of the Prince's Trust. Singing on "Let's Hear It England" has, wisely, been left to the choristers; the broadcasters have recorded clips of commentary. A sample will be available on www.commentatorsunited.com from tomorrow. Outside the Box can reveal that there is no place for John Motson or Jonathan Pearce in a line-up that reads: Champion; Brotherton, Darke, Branyard, Brackley; Wilson, Drury, Mowbray,...
00:00 » The IndependentArteta magic keeps Everton's home fire burning
Mikel Arteta's influence on the game, his opening goal the one moment of genius in a somewhat mundane encounter, served as another painful reminder to his manager, David Moyes, of why this campaign counts as Everton's great lost opportunity.
00:00 » The IndependentKanu raises Portsmouth from the dead
If Iain Dowie's arrival at Hull City lacked the "wow factor" – and that was according to Adam Pearson, the chairman who appointed him – the same could not be said of Portsmouth's comeback on an absorbing day down among the dead men at Fratton Park.
00:00 » The Independent'Drastic change' needed to save Reds, says Nicol
When Steve Nicol says he is "trying not to be too gloomy", it has nothing to do with the threatened player strike casting a cloud over the new MLS season in the United States. Instead the New England Revolution coach is reflecting on the fortunes of his former club, Liverpool.
00:00 » The IndependentRodallega adds pain to Clarets' travel sickness Rodallega strikes
Wigan edged closer to Premier League safety with a last-gasp win over fellow strugglers Burnley yesterday. Hugo Rodallega headed in during injury time to break the hearts of a battling Burnley side that had desperately tried to secure their first away win in the top flight since 1976.
00:00 » The Independent
