Manchester Utd and Arsenal play out yet another ill-tempered game
“That game, with the baggage that goes with it, is almost becoming an impossible match to referee, and I speak from personal experience.” So said former Premiership referee Jeff Winter after the latest outbreak of hostilities between two implacably opposed foes, an event also known as Man Utd v Arsenal.
Despite UEFA clearing the oligarch of a conflict of interest, Roman Abramovich still has significant influence at Chelsea's Champions League oppenents CSKA Moscow, writes Kevin O'Flynn
The story may sound familiar. A wealthy Russian benefactor invests huge sums in a football club, outstripping league rivals by millions and hiring a Portuguese European Cup-winning coach to take them to Champions League glory. This is not Chelsea, however, but Russian champions CSKA Moscow. The money smells the same; of Russian oil and Roman Abramovich. Despite UEFA clearing the Chelsea owner of a conflict of interest, some are still asking whether the billionaire or his associates are trying to create two super-clubs. The similarities between the two stories received wider attention when CSKA were drawn against Chelsea in the Champions League – no one is allowed to have a majority stake in two clubs in the same competition – but the connections had long been known in Russia.
Wednesday 1 Middlesbrough insist that Steve McClaren is not in the frame for the Newcastle job. Bolton likewise say Sam Allardyce is staying put. “Sam is committed to rewriting the history of this club,” says chairman Phil Gartside. Clive Woodward, who is about to step down as England rugby coach, may be offered a role at Southampton, waving a clipboard and shouting.
Friday 3 Terry Venables is believed to be having talks with Newcastle (keep the receipts, Freddie). “That was real Scottish football,” says beleaguered Berti as his side secure a moral victory in Spain, their friendly being abandoned at 1-1 due to floodlight failure, torrential rain and a plague of boils.
Having made £6 million less from last season's Champions League than the previous year, Manchester United chief executive David Gill yearns for UEFA to revert to the second group stage format for the competition
There is a never a shortage of opportunities to despair at how the businessmen who run major clubs do not understand the principles of football. David Gill, chief executive of Manchester United, for example, recently declared that he wants to see the return of the second group stage in the Champions League when the current contract ends in 2006. “I think all the big clubs would have preferred to keep it. There was a higher quality of opposition in the second group phase than the first one.” “Higher quality”, of course, means western European teams containing famous players who appear in Nike ads and would fill all the stadiums for three extra group games with tickets at 30-plus quid a throw.
Paul Doyle hails Shelbourne's Champions League exploits
To get an idea of Shelbourne’s standing in Europe until recently, consider the sheer contempt with which Croatia’s Hajduk Split prepared for their crucial Champions League second-round clash with the League of Ireland winners. Victory would set up a glamour clash with the mighty Deportivo La Coruña and Hajduk were so convinced that honour would be theirs that Shels manager Pat Fenlon claimed his Croatian counterpart simply blanked him when the draw was made in Switzerland and instead went straight up to the Spanish team’s officials to make arrangements.