Search: 'UEFA'

After an uninspiring three years in charge many Ipswich fans won't lose too much sleep over the departure of Joe Royle. Csaba Abrahall reports

“You can stick your Joe Royle up your arse,” was the advice many in the Portman Road crowd offered the Ipswich board when it became clear that the former Oldham, Everton and Manchester City boss was to be the man to replace George Burley as Town’s manager. Three-and-a-half years after that unheeded protest, apparently after a routine meeting with David Sheepshanks revealed irreconcilable differences, Royle has unexpectedly departed. Few are disappointed.

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Wednesday 3 Hearts’ win over Aberdeen means they will take Scotland’s second place in the Champions League. Sam Allardyce seems to have conceded defeat in his bid for the England coach’s job after Bolton’s 1‑1 draw with Middlesbrough: “It just does not look as though I am the favourite at the moment.”

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Every tournament's the same – not enough tickets. But as Mark Perryman explains, it's far from a uniquely English problem and thanks to FIFA it's getting worse

The last time England qualified for a tournament hosted in Germany, the 1988 European Championship, just 7,500 fans travelled from this country. Two years later not many more were there to support the team when West Germany beat England in the World Cup semi-final in Turin. In 2004 an astonishing 45,000 England fans helped pack out Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz for what was just the opening group game at the European Championship, against France.

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Anti-catholic chants from Rangers fans left UEFA unsure what to do, but their softly-softly approach could force real change in Scotland. Diane Millen reports

The endless, tawdry saga of sectarianism in Scottish football took an interesting twist earlier this month, with UEFA stepping in where the domestic authorities have declined to act and charging Rangers with “discriminatory chanting” following their fans’ behaviour in the Champions League tie against Villarreal. 

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Portugal's most successful export is certainly admired at home for his achievements and wealth – but his compatriots don't exactly like José Mourinho, reports Phil Town

In the last two years, José Mourinho has been to Portuguese football what Manderley was to the heroine in Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca and Hitchcock’s film: absent but omnipresent. At his old club FC Porto, various coaches have tried and failed to measure up to the historic yardstick set by Mourinho during his spell there, whether in material terms (back-to-back championships, a Portuguese Cup, a UEFA Cup and a Champions League title in two seasons) or in terms of style. Coach Co Adriaanse has just won the championship with Porto, but the team was widely seen as barely the best of a poor bunch vying for the title. And, however honourable the man might be, his appeal factor struggles to rise above the dishwater-dull when held up against Mourinho’s charisma, still hovering ghost-like above the Estádio do Dragão.

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