FIFA has blocked a request from the Premier League for a trial of ten-minute head-injury assessments.
A plane carrying the Arsenal women’s team was forced to abandon it’s take off after it burst into flames. The Gunners were travelling back from their 2-2 draw against Wolfsburg in the Champions League at the Volkswagen Stadium on Sunday. please log in to view this image
Point of order - aimed at the sensationalist press not the poster. Technical engine failure caused by a bird strike rather than plane burst into flames.
The big test will be what the crowds are like when prices are the same as other clubs. Acun will have to get revenues up to compete.
Flawed genius but I still love him OLIVER HOLT: Gazza is the most important figure in modern English football please log in to view this image Gascoigne (pictured at Lazio in 1999) has not long emerged from reality show Scared of the Dark where he openly talked about his mental health challenges throughout his life Like the comedian who wanted us to like him, Gascoigne lives for trying to make people laugh. He always has done. It makes it hard to see who he really is sometimes. The MC asks him about Glenn Hoddle. ‘The first time I met him,’ Gascoigne says, ‘he told me he had found God. I said “that must have been a f****** great pass.”’ It is not the last time he uses that joke. Now and again, there are glimpses of the damage. ‘What was your childhood like?’ the MC asks. ‘S***,’ Gascoigne says, without missing a beat. He talks about his abiding image of his dad, sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette. ‘All my dad ever said to me,’ Gascoigne says, ‘was “Son, you’re a f****** idiot.” He comes back to his dad and that phrase again and again and again. It is the evening’s catechism. Gascoigne recounts a story and then references his dad’s reaction. Almost invariably, it is ‘son, you’re a f****** idiot.’ When someone from the audience asks him about it later, Gascoigne says that he loved his dad. ‘I took him everywhere with me,’ he says. The MC asks him if things might have been different if he had signed for Manchester United instead of Spurs. ‘Sir Alex Ferguson phoned up and said he wanted me to join,’ Gascoigne says, ‘and I said “Dad, Fergie wants me to sign for United’. Dad said “you’ve made it son”. ‘Then the Spurs chairman Irving Scholar phoned up and I said “Dad, they want me to join Spurs’. Dad said “tell them to f*** off, son, you’re going to Manchester United”. I told him Spurs said they’d buy my mam a new house, they’d get him a BMW soft-top and they’d get my sister a sunbed. “Well, what are you waiting for then, son?” he said. please log in to view this image Around 350 people filled out the entertainment suite at Edgeley Park to see Gascoigne who recalled stories from his career including the possibility he could have joined Man United As Gascoigne’s life after football has lurched from one crisis to another, one misdemeanour to another, one addiction to another, the idea has taken hold that somehow he would have been saved by working with Ferguson at Old Trafford. ‘Really?’ he says. ‘Eric Cantona kung-fu kicked some guy in the head and Ryan Giggs shagged his brother’s wife so it didn’t exactly save them did it?’ It is getting late now. Gascoigne has been on the stage for an hour and a half and the bar has been doing good business. The background hum of chatter is getting louder and louder. The MC asks him how he is and Gascoigne is non-committal. ‘I miss football,’ he says and then he addresses the audience directly. ‘I miss the craic and I miss the fans. If I’m feeling down, all I have to do is have a chat with people like you and it gives me a lift.’ He steps down off the stage. A couple of security guys hurry him towards the exit. The crowd stands and cheers. ‘We love you Gazza, we do, we love you Gazza, we do,’ they sing and it rings in his ears as the door closes behind him.
Capacity is 10,356. Though like the MKM segregation will prevent the capacity being reached. They aren’t moving to a new ground yet, there are plans for a new 17,500 stadium but in the meantime they are going to upgrade Kenilworth Road.
