This week Sven Goran Eriksson ­ his job saved by “a legal loophole” according to “exclusive” tabloid extacts today ­ will once more be preoccupied by what he said, or did not say, to David Davies. But this time it really is, thankfully, just about football and not affairs. But they were overlooked in favour of Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia and Lyon.Now, the G14’s general manager, Thomas Kurth, said: “We recognise Celtic and Rangers as among the major European football clubs. No replacement was named.Del Neri took two days off last week and was not at Friday’s training session, alleging that he had missed flight connections while returning to Portugal.

Players and officials were reportedly unhappy with his handling of the team.Rangers and Celtic will be able to join the G14 group of clubs only if they are unanimously welcomed into Europe’s ?te. The Glasgow clubs wanted to join the group, which includes Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester United and Milan, in 2002. We will be looking closely at what Didier Deschamps says in the next few days.”Porto, the European champions, have sacked Luigi Del Neri, the man they appointed to replace Jose Mourinho, apparently because of his repeated absences from the club during the run-up to the new season. Paul Tyrrell, City’s communications officer, said: “Clearly there has been an illegal approach if we are to believe what was in the newspaper. Last season he played in the Uefa Cup when Basle were knocked out by Newcastle United.Manchester City are considering reporting Monaco to Uefa, the European game’s governing body, over an alleged illegal approach to Nicolas Anelka.Didier Deschamps, Monaco’s coach, admitted earlier last week that he had spoken to the striker and was interested in bringing the French international back home.The news has annoyed City, who insist Anelka is not for sale, even though their manager, Kevin Keegan, needs to raise funds to reinforce his squad.

He comes to us from Basle, where he gained experience of playing in the Champions’ League against teams such as Manchester United and Liverpool.”Atouba started 10 of the 12 group games in Basle’s Champions’ League campaign of 2002-03 and scored against Liverpool as his side progressed to the second group stage. Thimothee Atouba, a 22-year-old Cameroon international who was nominated for the African Nations representative team last season, expects to complete the formalities of his transfer from Basle during the next week.Arnesen said: “Thimothee is a strong, versatile left-footed player He is able to play left midfield or left full-back. Lee Thompson, a midfielder, scored the goal eight minutes from time.One of Gascoigne’s former clubs, Tottenham Hotspur, lined up a midfielder yesterday, another of the players picked out by Frank Arnesen, their new director of football. The man who in his heyday always seemed to be accompanied by someone known as “Five Bellies” was still laid up in Newcastle with bellyache. Nothing was ever simple with Paul Gascoigne, so it was no great surprise that his career as a player-coach should have made a false start. And Mark Palios, who was briefly her lover and quit as chief executive last week, “demanded self-preservation and self-advancement at the expense of the truth”.

The revelations will put most pressure on David Davies, acting chief executive, named by Ms Alam as among those who participated in the FA’s “scandalous” behaviour.. The 38-year-old who resigned on Thursday is reported to have been paid half a million pounds for her story, in which she describes Mr Eriksson as “a master of love”.But Colin Gibson, who resigned as director of communications at the FA last week, was “an utter bastard”. Faria Alam was offered “a huge pay-off” by the Football Association if she would lie about her affair with the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, the former secretary claims today. David James, a corporate consultant who carried out a review of the scheme for the Government in 2002, said last week: “They should reinstate Palios. If they don’t, they are going to have lost the plot completely and put the whole future of the Wembley project at risk.”The national interest is surely that we get Wembley Stadium built on budget on time and prepare ourselves for a reasonable stab at a World Cup coming to this country And we are not going to do that if we lose Palios.”. I hope the process will allow for a reorganisation and for a sensible long-term approach.”But the Sports minister, Richard Caborn, praised the leadership of Mr Palios, calling him “first class”.