• Cameroon come from behind to draw 2-2 with Tunisia
• Zambia climb above Gabon with 2-1 victory

Cameroon secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations after twice coming from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against Tunisia in Lubango.

The Indomitable Lions, who needed at least a point to ensure qualification from Group D, fell behind after only 57 seconds thanks to a fine diving header from Amine Chermiti.

It stayed at 1-0 until a minute after half-time, when Samuel Eto’o equalised with a close-range effort, before an own goal from Aurélien Chedjou restored the advantage for Tunisia. But Landry N’Guemo responded instantly with an arrowed finish to give Paul Le Guen’s team a place in the last eight.

In the closing stages Tunisia were reduced to 10 men when Ammar Jemal was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for an unnecessary push on Mohammadou Idrissou as the north Africans were eliminated.

Meanwhile, Zambia will join Cameroon in the knockout stages after beating Gabon, who were top of Group D before kick-off, 2-1.

Goals from Rainford Kalaba and James Chamanga earned Hervé Renard’s side a deserved victory in Benguela despite the substitute Fabrice Do Marcolino’s late effort.

But it came at a price, with both Kabala and the centre-half Kampamba Chintu collecting bookings which rule them out of the last eight clash.

Continue reading

• Ticket sales much slower than organisers expected
• High prices and safety fears cited for low take-up

Football’s ruling body, South African organisers, tourist chiefs – and ticket touts – had hoped the first World Cup on African soil would result in a huge influx of foreign visitors and help transform the continent’s image in the eyes of the world.

But today worrying signs emerged that the world might not turn out in the numbers expected, amid fears of high prices and uncertainty over safety.

Dutch and German football authorities have already confirmed that supply has far exceeded demand for tickets for their matches, and tomorrow England fans are likely to find themselves in the unusual position of discovering that requests have not exceeded the number on offer.

The scramble for England tickets is ­traditionally as familiar during the build-up to major tournaments as rampant over-optimism and the need to become an instant expert on metatarsal injuries.

But it is believed that this time around every England fan in the official ­supporters’ club who has applied for a ticket for the opening three group games against US, Algeria and Slovenia or for matches in later rounds will almost certainly get one.

Usually they have to accumulate a ­certain number of points by attending qualifying matches home and away or prevail in a ballot to get hold of the 3,000 to 6,000 tickets typically reserved for each match. An estimated 100,000 went to ­Germany for the 2006 World Cup and more than 50,000 travelled to Portugal for the 2004 European Championships.

In South Africa a total of 22,479 ­tickets have been allocated to England fans in the official club. In addition 48,274 tickets across all 64 matches have so far been allocated to buyers with UK addresses in the open Fifa ballot, ahead of the latest sales phase closing tomorrow. Each applicant can buy up to seven.

Whatever the final total, predictions from the South African organising committee and tourist chiefs that between 40,000 and 50,000 England fans would descend on South Africa as part of a contingent of 450,000 tourists now look over-optimistic.

“There is a combination of factors leading to a relatively low take-up of tickets from English fans and, ironically, the prospects of the team is not one of them,” said Kevin Miles, director of international affairs for the Football Supporters’ Federation.

“It’s a calculation about the World Cup experience you can get for your restricted funds and a combination of expensive flights, rip-off hotel rates, difficult internal transport, uncertainty about safety and the fact it is in winter. They all combine to make it a much less attractive proposition.”

Tour packages, including match tickets, typically start from £3,499, while individual match tickets range from about £49 to £98 for group matches and around £250 to £550 for the final.

However, Mark Perryman, of London­EnglandFans, said: “Once prices start to come down and people realise that it might be a pricey holiday but it’s not an outrageously pricey one, hopefully things will start to turn around because the last thing you want is half-empty stadiums.”

Continue reading

• Forward released after poor form and discipline
• Player recently suspended after unauthorised trip to Brazil

Jô has joined Galatasaray on loan until the end of this season from Manchester City.

The Brazilian forward had been on a season’s loan at Everton but David Moyes agreed to release him after being disappointed by both his form and his discipline. Jô was recently suspended after making an unauthorised trip to Brazil.

The Turkish club’s sporting director, Haldun Ustunel, came to England to conclude a deal for a player who has failed to make a consistent impact since join City from CSKA Moscow for £19m in 2008.

Jô is the second player to move to Galatasaray from a Premier League club this month, following the defender Lucas Neill, who left Everton.

Everton later confirmed their association with Jô – a player who had two loan spells at Goodison Park, making a total of 36 appearances and scoring seven goals – was at an end.

A statement on the club’s official website, added: “A season-long loan deal for the player had been agreed between Everton and Manchester City in the summer, but this has been cut short.

“Earlier this month David Moyes revealed that Jô had been suspended by the club for returning to Brazil without permission. That sanction proved temporary but Jô’s association with Everton has now ended.”

Continue reading

• Company claims runner’s optimum trip can be predicted
• Results take guesswork out of targeting races

A racehorse’s optimum distance can now be predicted before he has set foot on the track, according to an Irish ­scientist who claims to have isolated the gene that ­influences equine speed. The ­development has been greeted with enthusiasm by Derby-winning trainer Jim Bolger, who has described it as “the most significant discovery in the history of the thoroughbred”.

According to Dr Emmeline Hill, a ­lecturer in equine science at University College Dublin, every racehorse falls into one of three genetic categories, which she has classified by letters. ‘C:C’ types will be sprinters, ‘C:T’ types will be best over middle-distances, while ‘T:T’ types will be suited by a test of stamina.

Bolger stands to gain a great deal if, as expected, owners and breeders are ­prepared to pay ¤1,000 per test to find out the genetic predisposition of their horses. A company called Equinome, part-owned by Bolger and Hill, which launches next week has been set up to ­market the test to the racing industry.

“I’ve been using it for the last five or six years without knowing the full value of it,” said Bolger, who has made his horses available for Hill’s researches since 2004. “It’s only over the last 12 months or so that the whole situation has clarified itself. This will be the first full year that I’ll be using it.

“We take a blood sample and send it to Dr Hill and then she tells us what genome it is. We know then what distance is likely to suit the horse.”

The test also indicates how quickly a horse will be ready to race, since C:C types are generally precocious, while T:T types take time to mature. On average, T:T horses earn up to 20 times less as two-year-olds than C:T horses of similar ­pedigree, Hill claims.

“I probably won’t be cock of the walk with some of the trainers now,” said Bolger, who expects that owners of T:T horses will save on fees by sending them to be trained at a later stage in their two-year-old year. “But in the long term, this will help trainers.”

Hill, whose grandmother owned the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup ­winner Dawn Run, claims to have met with “remarkable enthusiasm” from ­prominent trainers in Ireland. “When I told them the test result for their horse, some of them said things like: ‘Oh, that explains it,'” she said. Hill has hopes that her services will be much in demand as racing professionals try to take the guesswork out of the sport.

Her discovery also has implications for breeders, who will be able to predict the outcome of matching horses whose genetic characteristic is known. Bolger has enjoyed great success as a breeder in recent years but believes Hill’s test will make a big difference.

“If I knew then what I know now, I could have saved myself a lot of money,” he said. “Even though I got some extraordinary results from the matings I chose, I got some bad ones as well.”

Continue reading

David Pleat marks 50 years in football this week. Here he reflects on how the game has changed and picks a team from the players he has worked with

Football, on the face of it, has changed beyond recognition since, in 1960, I spurned a host of clubs to sign for the team I had supported since childhood, Nottingham Forest, at the age of 15. I signed terms with Billy Walker, the ex-Aston Villa and England inside-forward, a manager I never once saw dressed in a tracksuit during my time at the City Ground. I’d played for England Schoolboys against Scotland at Wembley a few weeks before in front of 95,000 at Wembley, scoring a wonder goal in a 5-3 win. Barry Fry and Ron Harris had been my team-mates, taking on George Graham and Bobby Moncur in the Scottish ranks, and the press hailed me as “the new Tom Finney” on the day the old master retired from the game. I was 15 and, after completing my O-levels, went on to pick up £8 a week.

Back at Forest the facilities were basic, the techniques owing little to science. We’d train in the shale and asphalt car park, – four teams of eight with no warm-ups, – on the Friday before the game and, where nowadays players take it easy so as to avoid injury, those final sessions were ferocious, with players steaming into each other to try to get into the first team. No set plays practised here. Pick up an injury and the physio would resort to “the hose-pipe treatment”, spraying you down with hot and then cold water, and maybe rubbing in some ice for good measure. The players, some of whom smoked, would pop off down the local café after training to do the fixed odds ahead of the weekend, talking football for a couple of hours over five or six cups of tea, and that was the extent of our tactical preparation. Forget ProZone or video analysis of the opposition; we just spoke among ourselves.

None of the players had commercial deals with boot or kit manufacturers. Most clubs had a contract with their local sports shop who supplied the team’s boots. Match-day programmes cost 6p and, after a game on the Saturday afternoon, you’d come out of the ground to find a huge queue of fans waiting to pick up their copy of the Pink from the local newsagents, complete with the match report for the game they’d just seen. When I signed for Luton a few years later many of my team-mates had part-time jobs which they’d take on for the afternoons given that we only trained in the morning. Regular first-team football with Luton inflated my wage to £30 a week – heady days – though even there the manager, George Martin, was anything but a tracksuit coach. He’d referee training games from the centre circle in his smart coat and hat.

The day I first interviewed for a manager’s role I was up against Mike Everitt and Howard Wilkinson for the Wimbledon job. The director, Stanley Reed, went for Mike and Howard ended up at Boston United while I was eventually appointed by Nuneaton Borough in the Southern League. The standard of non-league football at the time was pretty strong, and that served as a proper manager’s apprenticeship (as it did for Jim Smith and Ron Atkinson), a stepping stone to coaching and, eventually, managing at Luton in the Second Division. What we achieved at Kenilworth Road, signing players such as Brian Stein from Edgware Town, Mal Donaghy from Larne and Kirk Stephens from Nuneaton, was possible then but I doubt it would be these days. They were magical years, taking a side into the top flight – they gave me a bonus, a small one I think, but there was nothing like the £40m reward for reaching the Premier League – and staying there.

Training was still not scientific. I had an assistant, a reserve coach, a youth coach and a physio, where these days managers can have a team of up to 40 specialists – medics, psychologists, nutritionists and coaching staff working under them. But there were still players in that Luton team who, I’m convinced, would have held their own in the Premier League. They had real quality with the ball, even if the game these days is as much about athletic power and speed as natural talent.

Life at Tottenham Hotspur, my next club, was a step up from Luton, inevitably, and I learned the politics of dealing with a chairman, in this case Irving Scholar, during my time there. I still didn’t see the monster of the Premier League coming, though others did. I got a call from an agent once saying it was only a matter of time before players “earned £20,000 a week” and I laughed it off as nonsense.

I also remember another of my chairmen at Spurs, Alan Sugar, attending a meeting with his counterparts – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal etc – and the Premier League discussing how much of the television revenue should be split between the clubs. Alan was infuriated and just said: “Gentlemen, it doesn’t matter if our share is £3m, £30m or £300m each. You’ll just give it all to the players and waste it.” He wanted the Premier League to retain a fair percentage, as a fund to develop football, but the others voted against him. He has been proved right since.

These days, football is more knee-jerk, whether it is chairmen firing managers or managers being over-ambitious too quickly. Back then we all built our reputations at a club before moving on to “bigger things”. QPR, Sunderland, Southampton and Brighton all tried to convince me to leave Luton but, when I eventually did move on, it was to a really big club in Tottenham. These days, managers forge reputations quickly and lose them even quicker. I’ve enjoyed my time in the game, whether it be managing Luton in the top flight, taking Spurs to Wembley or, as director of football, pinpointing players such as Jermain Defoe, Paul Robinson and Robbie Keane with real sell-on value. I’ve worked with some fantastic players over the years, the likes of – Chris Waddle, Ossie Ardiles, Ricky Hill and Des Walker to name a few, – but this is the selection I have made for the best XI have managed over my 50 years in the game.

Goalkeeper Ray Clemence

Tottenham Hotspur and England

By the time I arrived at Tottenham Hotspur in 1986, Ray had already accumulated his major medals and experiences, yet he retained safe hands, was an intelligent player and a very good talker. Those are important qualities for any goalkeeper, and he was a reassuring last line of defence. Our exciting, adventurous 4-5-1 formation took all the plaudits as an attacking approach, but our defensive record was exceptional as well, and Ray took much credit for that. His influence was extensive. Our chairman, Irving Scholar, had wanted to put a camera in the dressing room to record our FA Cup final experience against Coventry – what proved to be our saddest day – and the players didn’t fancy that. Scholar then suggested that the players need not know, and that we could put it in the ceiling, but I said that would be grossly unfair and tantamount to spying. I consulted Ray, as chief spokesman from the players’ pool, and he said there was no wayshould happen under any circumstances. What happens in the changing rooms should be sacrosanct. Sure enough, the plan was eventually ditched. The irony is that, had the cameras been in there, they might have noticed that half of the team went out on the pitch with Holsten across their shirts and half didn’t.

Right-back Dan Petrescu

Sheffield Wednesday and Romania

Petrescu was an outstanding wing-back, the best I ever worked with at timing his charge forward to seize an attacking opportunity with a run inside the opposing full-back. Trevor Francis had signed him for Wednesday but I was more than happy to inherit such a brilliant player. Like several of the outstanding foreign players I have worked with, he was a tremendous trainer. His touch was superb, and he was only very occasionally caught out defensively. Ultimately we lost him to Chelsea. He was swayed by his wife into moving. She apparently preferred shopping at Harrods to Meadowhall, and had decided the travelling from Heathrow to Bucharest was easier than having to get connections to Manchester and on to Sheffield. There was also the salary to take into account, of course, and we eventually conceded to his request.

Centre-half Richard Gough

Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland

We signed him from the authoritarian manager Jim McLean at Dundee United, but his stay at Tottenham proved all too short. I met him to discuss terms at the West Lodge Park hotel and, while we were talking, Ken Bates called up urging him not to sign for Spurs until he had spoken to Chelsea. Thankfully, he had made up his mind to come to White Hart Lane. At first his positional play needed adjusting as he was prone to embark on forays forward using his great athleticism, but he proved to be some player. He was a fitness fanatic and a natural leader of men, boisterous in the dressing room and a fine motivator of his team-mates. The type of player you wanted in your team. His father, Charlie, had played for Charlton Athletic and Richard was born in Sweden and brought up in South Africa. He was injured in the Cup final against Coventry and needed an operation on his knee, only to fly off back to South Africa immediately after the game. By the time he returned to London, he had made his mind up that he needed to move back to Scotland, with Graeme Souness at Rangers, having become homesick. Spurs doubled their money, but lost a top, top player.

Centre-half Mal Donaghy

Luton Town and Northern Ireland

We signed him in 1978 for £15,000 and, almost 500 games and 10 years later, sold him to Manchester United for nearer £650,000. He actually ended his career at Chelsea. Mal was quietly efficient and rarely, if ever, made a mistake. He was a terrific recovery tackler and never tried anything clever on the ball. He was such a natural footballer. He’d appear to stroll through games, as if he was playing at 80% and well within himself, but was a class act to watch. He was also one of the quietest men I’ve ever encountered on a football pitch or in dressing room. Perhaps he was simply shy, but he didn’t like to go out on to the field to warm-up pre-match and took himself away from the ground, post-match, by 5.20pm every Saturday. The last one out of the dressing room and the first away after the game, never saying boo to a goose, but he was a wonderful defender.

Left-back Gary Mabbutt

Tottenham Hotspur and England

He may have made his name at centre-half, but I first saw him at Bristol Rovers playing as a left-back. I was managing Luton at the time and tried to bring him to Kenilworth Road, meeting Gary and his father, Ray, who was a financial consultant and an ex-player, to discuss a possible move. We could have had him for a few pence more but the deal fell through – we joke now that our memories of the reasons the discussions came to nothing conflict – andSpurs were the ultimate beneficiaries. He was magnificent despite the circulation problems he’d suffer due to his diabetes. He was a great jumper for 5ft 10in, and tackled properly, rarely going to ground. To have come through the problems caused by his diabetes, and the horrific facial injury suffered against Wimbledon, was a magnificent achievement. A side with him and Donaghy in its defence would not be relegated. They were 9-out-of-10 players every week, and totally reliable.

Midfield Gary McAllister

Leicester City and Scotland

A real thinker, whom I inherited at Leicester City where he had been playing in a free role behind the front man, but whom I converted into a central midfielder who could not only pull the strings in possession, but would also do his fair share of defending. Many other coaches, including the Scotland manager Craig Brown, had doubted he was capable of putting in that kind of shift. He was an outstanding pinger of a ball and could put corners on a sixpence in the near-post area, and strike superb cross-field balls or clever short passes. He almost signed for Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest in 1990 before his contract expired at Filbert Street, but left instead under freedom of contract for Leeds. I remember fighting their managing director, Bill Fotherby, at the tribunal to make sure we received around £1.25m for his services, but that was money well-spent. Gary helped transform Leeds with Gordon Strachan and, ultimately, they won a league championship together. I fully expected him to do well in management and, if given another opportunity, I’m sure he will succeed.

Midfield Brian Horton

Luton Town

Not the quickest, and not the cleverest of players, but a fine, fine captain and a perfect positional player for the central midfield role that has since been made fashionable by the likes of Claude Makelele. He knew exactly where the ball was going to drop, when to anticipate and how to shuffle his troops across the field to block attacks. He was already 32 when I signed him from Brighton but he proved a fantastic leader of men in his three years at Luton. Every manager needs a confidante in the dressing room, someone to keep an ear on what’s being said and to bounce ideas off, and Horton was my best. I remember us losing 5-1 to Everton on a Saturday with games against Manchester United and Manchester City to come in the next week, and I took the risky decision to rest key players for the game at Old Trafford. I ran the idea past Brian, effectively conceding the points, and he went with it. We lost that game, but won at Maine Road and stayed up. I ended up recommending him to Hull City after chatting with their chairman, Don Robinson, at a Football Writers’ Association dinner and he duly started his managerial career at Boothferry Park, overseeing his 1,000th game as a manager some 20 years later. Straight as a die.

Midfield Glenn Hoddle

Tottenham Hotspur and England

When I first met him during the 1986 World Cup finals he had been promised that he could leave Tottenham that summer, but I persuaded him to stay on for another year. That season was undoubtedly his best at the club. He had outstanding vision and could play off the front foot, with that uncanny ability to play a pass away first time without having to adjust his feet or take the pace off the ball to get it on to his good foot. He had magical feet to play a ball with back-spin. He was also single-minded and quiet in the dressing room. We altered the position we asked him to play slightly to overcome the downsides to his game – he was never keen at tracking back or defending when possession was lost, as both Ron Greenwood and Keith Burkinshaw had noted. The 4-5-1 system relieved him of those defensive responsibilities as he became the loose second striker with his magnificent passing ability creating goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates. He eventually left for France and Arsène Wenger at Monaco, even though Spurs had originally struck a deal to sell him to Gérard Houllier at Paris Saint-Germain. He’s had an interesting career path since, but he always had ideas on the game and I was not surprised when he took up coaching.

Forward Paolo Di Canio

Sheffield Wednesday

I’d liked what I’d seen of him on television so I went up to Glasgow to see him play for Celtic. I took a cab to my hotel and the driver kept saying: “What are you doing here? Don’t you dare try and take Paolo off our hands.” When I got to the ground I found out he’d been ruled out through injury but, to be honest, I’d heard enough. He was fantastic in training and, while he could be selfish on the park and on some days played as if in a daze, at his best he was superb. He was temperamental – I remember him overturning the physio’s couch in one half-time tantrum, and stripping off at Blundell Park at the break refusing to go back on the field. He ended up going back out and playing better in that second half. He was wild, but he was also wonderful on his day: a great shooter, a fine crosser and a top-class dribbler.

Forward Clive Allen

Tottenham Hotspur and England

He had this wonderful intuition as to when to take the ball on the half-turn and strike for goal. We played him across the width of the box and asked him not to put in any excess running or stray into wide areas. He wasn’t the bravest, wasn’t the quickest, not the most industrious and far from the biggest in the air, but he had an uncanny goalscorer’s knack. As a person, he was first-class: a gentleman who knew that practice makes perfect, and would always stay out on a Friday when training had finished and rattle in half-volleys, volleys and shots into an empty net. His fabulous 1986-87 season started with a hat-trick at Villa Park and continued in similar vein all the way through to a record 49 goals. Reappointed by myself at Spurs several seasons ago, he remains a fine ambassador for the game.

Forward David Ginola

Tottenham Hotspur and France

A wonderful personality and a charming man who would sit down and have a conversation about football when most of the players were long gone from the training ground. It should be noted, too, that he would undertake extra training and was never in a hurry to leave – the cynics remarked that it was because he was standing in front of the mirror combing his air for 30 minutes after other players had left, but that was not so. He loved the game. He was a great dribbling talent and is the only player I ever worked with who was able to cushion the ball on his chest while in mid-air. It was his charisma as much as his skill that made him stand out. I remember him telling me once, in the nicest possible way, that 80% of the replica shirts we sold at Spurs had his name on the back. I think I respectfully told him that Tottenham never got involved with image contracts. He was asked to take on defensive responsibilities under George Graham’s stewardship, but David was never that way inclined. A class act.

Continue reading

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, tipped for Olympic gold in Vancouver, wear brown costumes with Aboriginal motifs

Russia’s world champion figure skaters have been accused of demeaning Australia’s Aborigines with their latest dance routine, which has been tipped for gold at next month’s Winter Olympics.

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, who performed the dance today at the European skating championships in Estonia – have been accused of “ripping off” Aboriginal culture and “co-opting” Aboriginal symbols. In their “Aboriginal dance”, the skaters take to the ice in brown costumes adorned with white geometric motifs and green leaves. The music includes whooping, rhythmic chanting and shouting, and a didgeridoo.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Bev Manton, an Aboriginal leader from New South Wales, called on the “talented” skaters to scrap the routine before the Vancouver games, describing the dance as insensitive and poorly judged.

“From an Aboriginal perspective, this performance is offensive. It was clearly not meant to mock Aboriginal culture, but that does not make it acceptable to Aboriginal people,” she wrote. “There are a number of problems … not least of all the fact both skaters are wearing brown body suits on their skins to make them look darker. That alone puts them on a very slippery slope.”

Manton said ceremony and image were sacred to indigenous Australians. “How do you think Australians would react if some Russians ice dancers dressed as Anzacs and acted out the doomed landing of ­Gallipoli?” she asked.

Russia’s ice skating federation expressed bafflement, and pointed out that all figure skaters had to perform a “world” dance as part of their two-routine competition programme. Examples included Argentinean tangos and Austrian waltzes.

Oleg Ovsyannikov, a former Olympic Russian skater, said he once dressed up as Buffalo Bill, the much-loved American bison hunter. His partner, Anjelika Krylova, appeared as an Indian princess. “We spoke to the American Indians and as a result we dropped the small crown which my partner had had on her head,” he said. “The dance was very well received. I’m sure that Oksana and Maxim are not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. These kinds of dances are really rather typical.”

Ovsyannikov said he had no idea if the criticism was an attempt to sabotage the chances of the ice dancers, who are based in the US but are well-known in Russia. They won the world championships in 2009, and the European championships in 2008.

The Herald reported that the Sydney skaters Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman performed an Aboriginal dance in Korea in 2008. The pair had respected Aboriginal culture and consulted the “community”, the paper suggested.

Some Herald readers appeared unimpressed. “What a pathetic attitude taken by the ‘indigenous community’ to a perfectly legitimate performance, probably choreographed as a compliment and with no malice intended,” one blogger noted.

Figure skating grew in popularity in the Soviet Union from the 1960s onwards, later falling off with the collapse of communism. Recently, however, it has been enjoying a revival, largely due to the popular Saturday night figure skating show Ice Age, which pairs celebrities with former sports stars.

Domnina and Shabalin were both competing today and not immediately available for comment.

Continue reading

Discuss the day’s big issues, send us your favourite links, follow us on Twitter and take a look at our 2010 sport calendar

6.14pm: Last orders here at Today in Sport, so here’s the Football Weekly podcast with James and the team discussing the Manchester derby, a thriller at Villa, what’s what in Europe. Also, Cameroon are into the last eight of the Africa Cup of Nations after a tight draw with Tunisia. Going with them are the less-fancied Zambia, who’s 2-1 defeat of Gabon (and some complicated maths) saw them in to the knockout stage. Paul Doyle followed the action. GSR

4.59pm: Nearly time to wrap up for the day, which means that today’s Fiver is out now and the Football Weekly podcast, with the team discussing the Manchester derby and the Villa thriller (thrilla?), will be also be live in a short while. GSR

3.44pm: It’s sudden death time for Cameroon and Tunisia in the Africa Cup of Nations, with both sides needing to win to go through to the last eight. Join Paul Doyle for all the action and updates from Gabon v Zambia in our minute-by-minute report. GSR

2.36pm: It’s all gone quiet on the news front. So anyway, here’s some video clips. Who says Roberto Carlos doesn’t have the hunger for it anymore? At his new club Corinthians, he appears so keen to prove his worth that he takes out an opposing player and two of his team-mates in one slide tackle. Not bad for a 36 year-old, even if he does look like a pensioner as he is helped to his feet. Oh, and here’s a clip of David Beckham having his ‘Goldenballs’ groped by a TV presenter. GR

2.06pm: There’s been a bit of funny business in the Xiamen International marathon in China. Apparently, over 30 runners have been disqualified for hiring impostors, using vehicles and attaching time-recording microchips to other competitors. GR

1.47pm: DavidHay86, thanks for the UFC update and the Brock Lesnar-bashing-Canadian-Healthcare link. On the subject of medical care, it seems doctors haven’t been able to help John O’Shea to recover as quickly from a blood clot in his leg as United would have liked. In fact, he may now miss the rest of the season. GR

12.14pm: To answer s2goon‘s question, we will indeed have a Football Weekly Extra podcast later on this afternoon. James Richardson, Barry Glendenning and Raphael Honigstein are off to the studio to record it shortly. Elswhere, the FA want to make the second leg of the Madchester derby a bit milder and will speak to both clubs in order to avoid any flashpoints, finger gestures, Rod Hull impressions and any of the other stuff that made the game exciting. And, the will-it-ever-happen bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr may take place in the summer according to the Philipino boxer. He reckons Mayweather Jr is “scared” of losing his unbeaten record and eventually the superfight will happen. Is he right about Mayweather being “scared”? Who do you think is doing most of the stalling? GR

11.50am: The Football Association have said they will not take any action against the Arsenal defender William Gallas following his late tackle on Bolton’s Mark Davies in last night’s Premier League match.

Kevin Mitchell has blogged on why the Russian Nikolay Davydenko is the scariest man in tennis and for a ripping bobsleigh laugh, make sure you take a look at Classic YouTube. MR

10.30am: Good morning and a belated welcome to our daily sports news blog. We’re a little understaffed today so we’ll do our best to update this page with news, links, and what’s expected to happen in the hours ahead when we can. Time permitting, we’ll try to wade in below the line, answering your questions and comments.

What’s coming up today

We’ve just had the morning meeting. Here’s what to expect in sports news today …

• There’ll be more reaction to William Gallas’s tackle on Mark Davies which the Bolton manager Owen Coyle describes as “akin to assault”. Davies is expected to undergo a scan on his injured ankle which should reveal the extent of the damage

• We’ll have more on the financial mess at Portsmouth

• The Madchester row rumbles on and on and on and on. There may be some news on Gary Neville after he flipped Carlos Tevez the finger on Tuesday night

• Michael Essien will undergo a scan on his injured knee to find out whether he will play any part for Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations or even whether he’ll be fit for Chelsea’s title push

• And at 4pm we will have minute-by-minute coverage of Gabon v Zambia in the Africa Cup of Nations with Gabon hoping to qualify after causing a shock in their opening match by beating Cameroon

Continue reading

Preamble:
Hi, how’s it going? Up to anything interesting lately? Awful weather we’re having. The price of stuff – crazy, eh? And what about those hoodies and swine flu and politicians’ expenses. It’s a disgrace.

The above was the correct current small talk convention, wasn’t it? Good. So let’s move on to the interesting stuff. We’ll start with the teams for this make-or-break clash twixt Cameroon and Tunisia. Oh no, we won’t, because I don’t yet have them to hand. So here are the line-ups for the equally critical encounter between Gabon and Zambia. All four teams in this group could yet progress to the quarater-finals, see.

Gabon: 1-Didier Ovono; 2-Georges Ambourouet, 17-Moise Brou Apanga, 5-Bruno Ecuele Manga, 19-Rodrigue Moundounga; 10-Alain Djissikadie, 14-Paul Kessany, 13-Bruno Zita Mbanangoye, 11-Eric Mouloungui; 8-Daniel Cousin, 23-Roguy Meye.

Zambia: 16-Kennedy Mweene; 4-Joseph Musonda, 15-Kampamba Chintu, 6-Emmanuel Mbola, 19-Thomas Nyirenda; 13-Stophira Sunzu, 7-Rainford Kalaba, 10-Felix Katongo, 11-Christopher Katongo; 12-James Chamanga, 7-Jacob Mulenga.

3:59pm: I can tell you that Cameroon have made no fewer than six changes to their starting line-up for this game. Reacting to the sluggish performances in the first two games, and perhaps to the taunts emanating from the Tiunisian camp, according too which the Indomitable Lions are “too old” to be a threat any more, Paul Le Guen has discarded Geremi and Rigbert Song, amongst others.

GOAL! Cameroon 0-1 Tunisia! A ridiculous start by Cameroon! The changes at the back have produced a result exactly opposed to the one anticipated by Le Guen! Tunisia cantered down the right wing and centre effortlessly, whereupon Chermiti darted in front of Nkoulou and directed a pluinging header into the net from seven yards! Splendid goal from a Tunisian viewpoint, diabolical from a Cameroonian one.

2 mins: As Cameroon repel a corner from the buoyant young Tunisians, the line-ups finally land in my inbox. Behold:
Cameroon: Kameni, N’Koulou, Binya, A Song, Mandjeck,
N’Guemo, Chedjou, Idrissou, Eto’o, Makoun, Enoh.

Tunisia: Mathlouthi; Souissi, Haggui, Jemal, Ragued, Korbi, Chemiti, Dhaouadi, I Jomaa, Mikari, Nafkha.

4 mins: Jemaa booked for a cynical foul in midfield. Less explicably, I’ve just noted that Achille Emana is on the bench. A bonkers decision by Le Guen, to be sure. “Can you tell us how Nguemo plays?” pleas Patrick Grey. “As a Celtic fan I’m torn between wanting the lad to play as well, as he has done for us, but wanting his team to crash and burn horribly so he is back playing for us sharpish! (Sorry Cameroon fans. And, er, Landry).” Well, he was abysmal on his previous appearance in the tournament – worse than Emana was in the last game for sure – but he’s in action here. Not done anything yet, like his team-mates.

6 mins: A pause in play as a Tunisian receives treatment. “Only 22 and married with two children – a responsible young man,” says Eurosport’s commentator of Alex Song as the camera pans to the Arsenal midfield. “I’d call that irresponsible,” replies his sidekick Stuart Robson. Textbook moralising from the gantry, right there.

10 mins: Cameroon are showing plenty of urgency, but lamentably little precision.

13 mins: Eto’o, marooned out on the left as part of Le Guen’s odd masterplan, collects the ball and attempts to drive inside, but is repulsed by a Tunisian defender. “Mention of the Zambia team reminds me of the days back in ’95 when I used to play Actua Soccer on the family PC,” recalls Elliot Carr-Barnsley, all misty-eyed. “Every time Kalusha Bwalya got the ball, anywhere on the pitch, the commentator (Barry Davies?) would shout “BWALIYYYAAAA” as if he’d scored. Happy days. I once spent a day playing the whole of Euro 96 on that with a friend. Good times. I remember the sun being out outside but we had no need for it.”

16 mins: By the way, I forgot to mention that the Cameroon team presented themselves for the pre-match anthems in the orthodox manner – I note that, of course, because they were panned in Cameroon for turning their backs on the Zambia team during the anthems that preceded their previous match – that little stunt was inspired by Algeria’s pointed snub of the Egyptian players in the recent World Cup play-off but, according to some Cameroonian journalists, riled the Zambians so much that they went and opened the secoring after only eight minutes. This time Cameroon’s opponents scored after jsut one minute. So what does that tell us about the importance of stances during anthems, eh?

19 mins: Tunisia are content to play on the counter now, and are having no trouble soaking up the blunt pressure from Cameroon, whose lack of creativity is stark.

21 mins: Enoh knocks the ball beyond full-back Soussi and gives chase … but he can’t retrieve it before it trickles out of play. To show how much that dismayed him, perhaps, he clatters into Soussi, sending the Tunisian tumbling into a coven of crouching photographers. The referee doesn’t show a yellow card, possibly because he’s too busy laughing.

23 mins: All very scrappy at the moment. Cameroon are going out with a whimper. “Your Actua Soccer correspondent has jogged a memory for me,” blurts Andi Thomas. “FIFA 96, on the Super Nintendo. Apart from having to spend a fair proportion of every game yelping in fear and pain thanks to my stepdad, who insisted on throwing himself around the room with every save his ‘keeper made, the memory that stands out most clearly is the inept Nigerian goalkeeper. The name escapes me, but he was so bad – so unbelievably, ludicrously, flap-at-every-shot-even-from-the-halfway-line awful – as to make the whole game feel, in retrospect, ever-so-slightly racist. I seem to recall their defence being a touch on the naïve side, too. Happy days, forever tainted by my slow morph into a Guardian reader.”

26 mins: Corner to Cameroon. Nguemo makes a rabid dog’s dinner of it. “The stage is set for Rigobert to come off the bench and inspire the comeback, surely?” types celebrated wordsmith Jonathan Wilson all the way from Angola. “I’m desperate to do my piece on the Joan Crawford of
African football: every day he puts on more make-up, but he can no
longer hide the signs of age …”

28 mins: This is degenerating into an foul-tempered affair. Nafkha has just been booked for booting Mandjeck in the face, and an unseemly kerfuffle ensues. Eventually Eto’o pulls himself away from the pushing and shoving to curl a freekick towards the back post, and Song narrowly fails to connect.

GOAL! Gabon 0-1 Zambia (Kalaba 29′) I didn’t see it, but I can tell you that means the Copper Bullet Boys – managed by former Cambridge United flop Herve Renard – are now poised to make the last eight.

30 mins: As if to pay tribute to the keeper of Andi Thomas’s old game, Mathlouthi charges out of his box and handles the ball – it was a senseless deed and he’s lucky to be punished with only a yellow. From the resultant freekick, the keeper flaps at Eto’o’s shot, but that’s enough to turn it behind for a corner.

33 mins: Alex Song snaps a pass in to Makoun, whose control is atrocious. That has been a noticeable failing of Cameroon in this tournament – Song’s capacity to deliver a quick and sharp pass is not matched by his team-mates, who struggle to perform with any sort of precision once the tempo is raised. “Re: Herve Renard,” begins matt Walker. “Perhaps hedidn’t have the right Kalaba of player at Cambridge United?”

35 mins: Eto’o, still foraging around the left, swaps passes with Nguemo and then scoops a pass high over the head of Idrissou. It droops out of play, far, far from the danger zone. That is not how Cameroon are going to turn this match around.

38 mins: This time Eto’o is, at least, in the box when he receives the ball, but he fails to navigate his way past the defender, who completes his spoiling job well by blocking the striker’s shot before whacking the ball upfield.

40 mins: Korbi is writhing in agony in the middle of the pitch following a late lunge by Nguemo. It didn’t appear to connect with much force, but off goes the Tunisian on a stretcher.

42 mins: Cameroon are monopolising possession but are showing no signs of penetrating a well-drilled and many-manned defence. They lack imagination, speed and, when it comes to the crucial areas, precision.

44 mins: Tunisia almost show Cameroon how it’s done with a rapid counter. Mikari raced all the way forward from left-back, effortlessly infiltrating the Cameroonian defence, but shot into the sidenetting.

Half-time: Cameroon wobble on the brink of embarassing failure. It will be deserved. Tactically and technically they are flawed. Tunisia only have to stand firm to triumph. Le Guen has work to do. “Don’t know if you noticed on TV, but as Ragued shot into the side-netting, it looked to all this side of the ground as through the ball had gone in, to the extent the ref pointed to the centre-circle,” chronicles Jonathan Wilson. Thanks Jonathan, that was not apparenty on the TV – and that sounds like just the sort of official who should be brought to the attention of Bundesliga referee selectors, if this is antyhign to go by.

Idle chitchat: “Barry Davies was always good value for shouting players’ names excessively loud, especially on computer games,” reckons Paul Frangi. “On the official Euro 96 game Spain had Pizzi as one of their strikers and any time he shot on goal he would scream ‘PIIIIIIZZZZZZIIIIII!!!!’ Which caused much amusement.” And years later, it still doesn’t.

More chinwaggery: “Haven’t Cameroon made the amateurish mistake made by many a fantasy football manager before,” chides Michael Hunt. “In calling themselves the Indomitable Lions, they set themselves up to look stupid the moment they are clearly tamed? The same way it makes you feel better about the failure of your fantasy football team to see ‘Top of the Table’ battle it out with ‘The Greatest’ and ‘AllStar XI’ at the bottom of the fantasy league.” Perhaps, Michael, but it is also worth nothing that the opposite does not pertain, viz. choosing a humble and harmless animal as nickname does not set the scene for glorious conquest. Otherwise the Squirrles of Benin would surely be top of the tree.

46 mins: Cameroon have made an inevitable change. Makoun, who was abject, has been replaced by Webo, who wasn’t much better in his previous apperance at this tournament. Where is Emana?

GOAL! Cameroon 1-1 Tunisia (Eto’o 47′) It was not a thing of beauty to neutral observers, but Paul Le Guen couldn’t have wished for a more picturesque sight: the man who he has jsut introduced, Webo, was the architect of the goal that keeps Cameroon’s hopes alive, surging on to the ball by the by-line before cutting it back for Eto’o to shunt into the net.

49 mins: Tunisia should have regained the lead immediately! With a simple ball forward they prised the shaky Cameroonian defence apart and Dhaoudi galloped into the box but, with a clear shot the obvious option he elected to play it across the box to … no one.

51 mins: Corner to Cameroon. Eto’o wastes it.

53 mins: Slack defending by Tunisia, who left Eto’o completely unmarked on the penalty spot. The Inter striker rose to meet Mandjeck’s cross but couldn’t direct his header on target.

54 mins: By my calculations, since none of you have asked, Cameroon and Zambia will go through to the last eight if the scores in both this afternoon’s goal remain the same. Gabon will miss out by dint of having scored fewer goals than that pair.

55 mins: Tunisia, who need to win to prolong their stay in Angola, are beginning to apply serious pressure, firing cross after cross into the Cameroonian box.

57 mins: Eto’o eludes on tackler before being thwarted at the edge of the Tunisian area by Haggui, who wellies the ball clear. Tunisia, by the way, have introduced Ben Saada, a former World Cup winner … with France’s U-17 team (they very team, indeed, that featured Portsmouth and Algeria’s Hassan Yebda).

60 mins: Binya takes down Dhaouadi, giving Tunisia a freekick some 35 metres from goal, and coming perilously cloes to earning himself a second yellow card. Le Guen should consider replacing him as his tackling is becoming increasingly reckless … and EMANA IS STILL ON THE BENCH!

61 mins: Korbi becomes the fifth player to be booked so far, and will miss the next game if Tunisia progress. “Who will finish top if the scores remain the same Paul?” hollers Phil Lewis, who apparently hasn’t bothered to read my post on 54 mins. “And if only two teams finish level on points is the order decided on head to head encounters or goal difference? Fundamental questions that are seldomaddressed by television pundits during footballing round robins.” Head-to-head record is the primary criteria, then comes goal difference and goals scored.

GOAL! Cameroon 1-2 Tunisia (Chedjou og, 63′) Providing all those permutations for the final standings seems redundant now, as Chedjou has just put Tunisia back in front with an outlandish own goal. Under no pressure he met Ben Saada’s long ball and sent a looping header over his own keeper from 15 yards!

GOAL! Cameroon 2-2 Tunisia (Nguemo 64′) Webo is again the inspiration for the equaliser, receiving the ball in the box and then laying it back to Nguemo, who cracks a low shot into the far corner! Meanwhile, Zambia have gone 2-0 up against Gabon in the group’s other game. It was a fierce drive, but the keeper should have done much better. As things stand, the quarter-final line-up will be Egypt v Zambia and, wait for it, Cameroon against Nigeria!

67 mins: Eto’o becomes the latest player to be booked, for dissent would you believe. Of course you would. “Not wanting to get involved in a pretty sad riff here, or in any way show that I haven’t changed at all in the past 15 years, but the new Fifa game for some reason requires Fulham’s Simon Davies to be referred to as Davies, Simon Davies,” spurts Elliot Carr-Barnsley. “As if James Bond. He isn’t James Bond.”

69 mins: Cameroon change: Binya off, no doubt for fear of him getting dismissed, and on comes not Emana … but Rigobert Song! Turly, the stage is set for the great man to plunder the winner. Whether that will be by smashing one past Mathlouthi or outdoing Chedjou in the own goals stakes remains to be seen …

72 mins: Eto’o comes deep to receive the ball and play a lovely reverse pass through to Idrissou, who is wrongly called back for offside. He would have been clean through.

74 mins: Cameroon again thwarted by an erroneous offside decision. Much more of this and Eto’o will soon be feeling an irrepressible urge to dissent again.

76 mins: Nguemo left a Mandjeck cross in the hope that it would run to Webo, but it didn’t.

78 mins: Splendid play by Alex Song, winning t he ball in midfield before feinting past two players … and collapsing to the ground to win a tactical freekick.

79 mins: Lovely trickery by Eto’o at the corner of the box, sucking in two defenders and then slipping the ball back to Webo, who took one touch and then sent a curler fractionally wide from 18 yards.

81 mins: Tunisia change: off comes their goalscorer, Chermiti, on trots Ayachi.

83 mins: Things are getting a little too much for the Tunisians, who are encircling the ref and berating him furiously for his decision to punish Jemal for a barge on Eyong. Meanwhile, Gabon have set the scene for a late twist by pulling a goal back against Zambia thanks to Marcelinho – one more and they go through.

85 mins: Tunisia change: ragued off, M’Barat on.

86 mins: Haggui heads a high over the bar after rising to meet a long freekick. “As an Arsenal fan, is it wrong for me to want Cameroon to lose?” wonder Marlon Lorde. “We need our him back and fresh to face Man Utd on the 31st. Come on Tunisia!” Song has been excellent in this game, and in the previous ones.

88 mins: A red card has long seemed inevitable in this matcgh and it should come any second now because Jemal has just got his second yellow for a petulant push in the back of Idrissou. After much hesitation the ref saves himself from a Graham Poll moment by finally flourishing the red. Off trudges Jemal, booting a bottle on his way.

89 mins: Cameroon substitution: Nguemo off, Bikey on.

90 mins: There will be six minutes of injury time, which provides ample scope for more fun in this increasingly helter-skelter game. One goal changes the entire group.

90+2 mins: An extravagant fall by Eto’o doesa not yield a freekick and Tunisia hurtle down the other end in desperate search of the goal they need. It wasn’t a dive by Eto’o – Haggui clatteered him – and that miscarriage of justice does not prove significant as the Tunisian attack peters out well short of the box.

90+4 mins: Bikey dons the unlikely garb of midfield general and pulls off the roll with aplomb, directing his troops forward with a series of deft passes … until they reach the brink of the Tunisian box, where the move breaks down. Meanwhile in Lubango, Zambia celebrate the end of their game against Gabon and their passage to the quarter-final.

90+5 mins: Korbi loses his balance when in prime position to deliver a dangerous cross, and instead wafts the ball into the crowd behind the goal.

Full-time Cameroon go through thanks to a second half transformation and their long acclaimed resilience. Their quarter-final against Nigeria promises to be a mighty clash.

Continue reading

• Simon Grayson still hopes the striker will sign a new contract
• Reports suggest Beckford has already agreed move to Everton

Leeds United will attempt to fight off interest from Everton and keep their leading scorer Jermaine Beckford if they win promotion to the Championship, according to their manager, Simon Grayson.

Beckford, who will become a free agent when his contract expires at the end of the season, is expected to leave Elland Road after turning down an improved deal before Christmas. Leeds, however, have so far resisted the temptation to cash in on the player during the transfer window, rejecting an offer of £1.25m from Newcastle United for the 26-year-old striker.

Over the past few weeks Grayson had given the impression of being resigned to losing him in May, and sources close to the player are suggesting he has already agreed basic terms to move to Everton.

But Grayson said today that Leeds had not given up. “It would be foolish not to try and keep him, and I’m sure once the season finishes, and hopefully we’re in the Championship, there might be one sort of last contract offer towards him,” he said.

“If rumours have it he’s being linked to Premier League clubs, then that’s obviously difficult for us to compete with, but while he’s our player we expect him to keep performing and doing the job he’s done for us.”

Beckford, who has scored 20 goals this season, has failed to increase that total in three games (none of which Leeds have won) since scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup win against Manchester United at Old Trafford. But Grayson denied that the constant speculation may be beginning to affect the player.

“I don’t think so – in fact I’d like to think if he gets better as a player and scores more goals, then he’ll get more publicity and maybe, if he’s after more money, then that’s what he’ll get.

“Whatever happens, nothing can be agreed now, nothing is legally binding with anybody you speak to. If he doesn’t score from now till the end of the season – and hopefully he does – then his value will go down and he might not get the money he’s looking for.

“If he scores another 20 odd goals it might be a bigger team that comes in for him than those that are rumoured to be in for him at this moment in time. Hopefully it’s the latter, he gets loads of goals for us and maybe then moves on to bigger clubs, instead of average clubs he’s being linked with.”

Continue reading

Imposters and vehicles among methods used by participants competing for exam credit in race

Despite what their PE teachers might have told them, for many of those who competed in a Chinese marathon earlier this month, it was not the taking part but the winning that counted.

Almost a third of the runners who finished in the top 100 have since been disqualified for cheating in the race in the southern port city of Xiamen.

Some of them hired imposters to compete in their place.

Some competitors jumped into vehicles part way through the route, Chinese media reported, while others gave their time-recording microchips to faster runners. Numbers 8,892 and 8,897 both recorded good times – but only thanks to number 8,900, who carried their sensors across the finish line.

Jiefang Daily, the Shanghai Communist party newspaper, said organisers caught the cheats when they scanned video footage. The paper said most of those involved had apologised, but that those showing an “unco-operative attitude” would be prevented them from competing in future events.

There was more than just prestige at stake in the marathon. Competitors stood to gain a crucial advantage in China’s highly competitive university entrance exams. Those who finished in under two hours and 34 minutes could add extra points to their score in the gaokao, helping to explain why several of those disqualified came from a middle school in Shandong province.

The exams are so crucial to the future of Chinese children that both students and their families will go to extraordinary lengths to guarantee success. Last year, eight parents and teachers were jailed on state secret charges after using communication devices – including scanners and wireless earpieces – to help pupils cheat.

Organisers of the international event in Xiamen have vowed to increase surveillance in future, saying that they had only 200 monitors to oversee 50,000 runners in the marathon and accompanying races.

The problem is not a new one; in 2007, 19 competitors in Beijing were caught with multiple timing sensors.

Nor is such cheating restricted to China. Rosie Ruiz remains infamous in the United States for her victory in the women’s race in Boston in 1980.

No one could understand how an unknown amateur runner had triumphed – until it emerged that she had ridden the subway almost all the way, joining the route barely a mile before the finish line.

The temptation to cheat in such a long race seems to have existed almost since the introduction of the modern marathon in the late nineteenth century.

Fred Lorz easily claimed the men’s title in the 1904 St Louis Olympics with a time of three hours, 13 minutes. Officials soon discovered the secret of his success: the 11-mile ride he received in his manager’s car.

Continue reading