Liverpool are one of the greatest football clubs in world football. But let’s make no mistake, the legends of Anfield are watching solemnly over what is now a distant shadow of the supreme history of this once proud football titan. The names of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley hang like a concrete millstone around the neck of Rafa Benitez.
December 11 – The battle for control of Arsenal has begun to heat up Uzbekistan’s Alisher Usmanov (pictured) increased his stake in the club.
By Tom Degun
December 10 – England is perfectly placed to stage the 2018 World Cup, former West Ham United and Charlton Athletic manager Alan Curbishley (pictured) has claimed.
By Duncan Mackay
December 10 – Sweden and Norway are set to drop plans to submit a joint bid to host the 2016 European Championships after the two countries Governments refused to support it financially.
By Duncan Mackay
December 9 – Baroness Valerie Amos (pictured), Britain’s High Commissioner to Australia, has risked upsetting her hosts by publicly claiming that England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup is much stronger than any of its rivals, including Australia’s.
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By Mike Rowbottom
December 9 – When, a little more than a year after he had managed Derby County to the 1974-75 First Division title, Dave Mackay read a national newspaper story claiming he was to be replaced, his reaction was characteristically defiant. As he admits in his autobiography The Real Mackay (Mainstream, £15.99), he stormed into the boardroom and challenged the club’s directors to deny that they had been behind the article.
By Duncan Mackay
December 9 – ESPN signed a four-year deal £60 million deal today to broadcast live FA Cup matches in Britain to fill the void left by collapsed network Setanta.
By Duncan Mackay
December 8 – Abu Dhabi organisers have been praised for their preparations for the FIFA Club World Cup, which opens tomorrow and which could be the launchpad for a bid for the 2026 World Cup.
By Duncan Mackay
December 8 – Japan’s Government has promised to support the country’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup but will not provide any state funding they said today.
By Duncan Mackay
December 8 – FIFA’s director of communications Hans Klaus (pictured) has resigned from football’s world governing body following a dispute over strategy less than 200 days before the opening of the World Cup in South Africa.
December 7 – Michael Bloomberg (pictured), the Mayor of New York City, has joined the Board of the USA Bid Committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, taking his place alongside a high-powered group that also includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Henry Kissinger.
I read with interest recently Roy Hodgson’s comments about the state of football coaching in the UK. I could not agree more with his sentiments. I have worked in sport all my life at senior management levels and was a senior coach of the Football Association for six years.
By David Owen in Cape Town
December 8 – FIFA needs to move decisively to claim Asia as “football territory”, according to Frank Lowy (pictured), the Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman.
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By Duncan Mackay in London
December 7 – Prime Minister Gordon Brown has held talks at Downing Street with Dr Mong-Joon Chung (pictured middle), a FIFA vice-president, to help promote England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
By Duncan Mackay
December 7 – The Premier League’s support of England’s campaign to host the 2018 World Cup was demonstrated at the weekend when clubs donated perimeter advertising at their fixtures to promote the bid, chief executive Andy Anson (pictured) has claimed.