Archive for September, 2009

Live scoreboard: Every goal as they go in

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Newcastle Utd v QPR – live!

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Gold offers to remain at Birmingham after sale

• Co-owner could stay as the chairman under Carson Yeung
• ‘I am hopeful of staying at Birmingham’ says David Gold

The Birmingham co-owner David Gold is waiting to hear whether he has a future at St Andrew’s but has not ruled out moving to another club.

Gold, who with David Sullivan is in the process of selling the club, has offered to remain as the chairman under Birmingham’s prospective new owner, Carson Yeung. Sullivan and the chief executive Karren Brady have already announced they will be leaving once the Hong Kong businessman completes his expected takeover next month.

“The reason we have sold is that we believe these people can take this football club to the next level,” said Gold. “I will be selling my shares along with every other shareholder. Whether I remain as chairman is yet to be finalised. I have offered my services and I am expecting to hear in due course.

“At the moment I am hopeful of staying at Birmingham City and hopeful of doing a good job for the future.”

When asked if he would like to invest elsewhere in football, Gold said his thoughts were with the Blues but there was a chance. “That is always a possibility – but 16 years at a football club, 12 as chairman, you become a fan. That is what I have become but you never know what is around the corner.”

Gold is confident that in Yeung, who is conducting the takeover through his investment vehicle Grandtop Holdings, the club have identified an owner with a good football mentality. “The most important thing that is required of an owner, a principal, is that he has to be primarily a football person with a business head. Time will tell, but all the things I heard were positive and that encourages me,” Gold said.

Bellamy fan is banned from games for three years

• Fan who invaded pitch said he just wanted to celebrate
• ‘Actions could have caused a full-scale pitch invasion’

A man who was shoved in the face by the Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy after running on to the pitch was banned from attending football matches for three years today.

Jake Clarke, 21, from Chorley, Lancashire, admitted entering the playing area at Old Trafford during Manchester United’s 4-3 victory over City. Bellamy confronted Clarke after the solo pitch invasion, which came at the end of a highly-charged game on 20 September.

The bricklayer, who had to be restrained by four stewards, told officers he “got over-excited” and “just wanted to celebrate with the players” after the United substitute Michael Owen had scored a last-gasp winner. Clarke, who has previous convictions for cannabis possession and common assault, told Trafford magistrates’ court that he “deeply regrets” his behaviour. He said: “I’m gutted about what I have done. I know it was a stupid action. I just wanted to celebrate.”

The court heard that Clarke was leaving the ground when Owen scored deep into injury-time, and the fan was pushed towards the pitch before he decided to enter the field of play.

Steve Woodman, prosecuting, showed CCTV footage of the incident, and said that Manchester United were considering imposing their own ban on the football fan. Manchester City could have equalised if it had not been for Clarke, Mr Woodman suggested.

“The defendant’s actions could well have caused a full-scale pitch invasion,” he said. “It will have been viewed by millions across the world. It was a very tense, very high-profile match. The game went right down to the wire.

“The City players were trying to get back to the centre circle to respond to the late goal. City may well have been able to push on and score the equaliser,” he said.

Police are not investigating Bellamy’s part in the incident but he has been warned by the Football Association. Ian Huggan, defending, said football was a large part of Clarke’s life and he attended around 40 games a season. He asked the court not to impose a ban on his client, saying: “Is it right that this defendant is made subject to a banning order when the player who took the action is just given a warning?”

But Anne Marie Evans, the chair of the magistrates’s bench, decided to ban Clarke from all football matches for three years, and imposed a fine of £305. “Your actions could have resulted in disorder and possible violence,” she said.

Apoel Nicosia v Chelsea – live!

Hit refresh or the auto update button for the latest posts. Email Barry.Glendenning@guardian.co.uk and tell him how nice he smells. If that doesn’t do it for you, you can follow Rob Smyth’s Manchester United v Wolfsburg minute-by-minute, while here’s tonight’s full Champions League scoreboard

26 min: Apoel win a corner, which is played short to the near post, where Frank Lampard heads clear.

22 min: Despite having gone a goal down, Apoel seem happy enough sit back, let Chelsea have the ball and do it what they please until they make their way into the final third.

21 min: “My old landlord wouldn’t give me my deposit back because the carpet in one of the bedroom’s had a tiny speck of paint on it (ex was an artist),” writes Peter Corway. “Instead of dealing with this maturely and logically, I decided it would make much more sense to get drunk, find a brick and smash the windows of the house on two separate occasions. If he wasn’t going to give me my deposit back, he was going to have to pay for it in spilled glass.”

GOAL! Apoel FC 0-1 Chelsea (Anelka 17) That’s a great goal. Juliano Belletti jinks his way down the right wing to the end-line, cuts inside, and pulls the ball back to Anelka, just inside the penalty area. From 20 yards out, he eschews the power option and deftly passes the ball into the far corner of the goal.

15 min: This is fairly turgid, scrappy stuff. Neither team are playing particularly well, but you get the feeling that an Apoel goal would liven things up no end. There doesn’t seem much hope of them getting one, as they’re happy to sit back and try to soak up anything Chelsea can throw at them, then take their chances on the break.

14 min: From the centre of the park, Ashley Cole pings the ball out to Nic Anelka on the left touchline and continues his run into the penalty area. The Frenchman ambles onwards and inwards, before sending a lazy cross into the penalty area that neither Cole nor Kalou have a hope of getting near.

12 min: Another offside flag after good work from Apoel. The refereee played the advantage after Essien had fouled Mirosavljevic on the edge of the box, the ball broke for Alexandrou who tried to thread it through to Pinto, only for the linesman to flag the Apoel player for offside.

9 min: For a moment it looked like it could be the dawning of the age of Nectarious, as the Apoel No29, Nectarious Alexandrou looked to have sprung the Chelsea offside trap, latched on to a pass from midfield and got through on goal. After a short delay, the linesman flagged. There wasn’t much in it.

8 min: Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien tries a right-footed drive from distance. Wide.

6 min: Apologies to anyone who was looking in vain for the auto-refresh button and couldn’t find it. It should be there now, just above the photograph. Whatever workshy idiot set up this minute-by-minute report (ie it isn’t my fault it wasn’t there) this afternoon forgot to click the relevant box.

4 min: Apoel win a free-kick wide on rthe right about 40 yards out from the Chelsea goal after Branislav Ivanovic brings Nenad Mirosavljevic to ground with a cynical tug. He’s lucky to escape a booking. The ball is curled across the edge of the six-yard box at chest-height, prompting Petr Cech to rush off his line and punch clear.

3 min: Not much going on. Apoel have won a couple of free-kicks but have been content to stroke the ball around at the back rather than launch the ball forward and risk gifting possession to Chelsea.

1 min: Chelsea kick off at 9.45pm local time. Christos Kontis immediately concedes a corner. Lampoard swings it in, goalkeeper Dionisios Chiotis attempts to punch clear and the referee blows for a free-kick to Apoel.

Pre-match niceties: The teams line up in the tunnel, with Apoel’s players wearing yellow shirts with blue trim, blue shorts and yellow socks. Chelsea are dressed in all white, with thin blue lines across their shirts. There appears to be a paucity of children’s kit in Nicosia, as most of the mascots dressed in the home team’s duds appear to be wearing shorts that reach down to their ankles. Not long to go now.

An email from Colin Greer to get the ball rolling: “I had a landlord (Greek, not Cypriot) who liked to let himself in too,” he writes. “He was fat and wheezed a lot – nearly passing out any time he reached our second floor flat. One day, when I was sleeping one off, I heard him enter the flat (wheezing heavily) and turn on the TV. He must have been deaf, too, because he had the TV on very loud. He then had the audacity to switch over to one of those adult entertainment channels (scrambled, no less)! His wheezing progressively got louder the longer he stayed. I tried making noises of my own, in the hopes he’d discover he was not alone, but the TV was so loud he couldn’t hear me. I was forced to ‘wait him out’. I handed him my notice soon after.”

Tictacs corner: While I wholeheartedly agree with BBC Five Live boadcaster Danny Baker when he says that football is chaos and anyone who waffles incessantly about formations and tactics should be soundly thrashed with a big stick, it would be a gross dereliction of journalistic duty to ignore them completely. So, to keep the nerds happy …

Apoel look likely to line up – minute-by-minute reporter shakes head wearily and rolls eyes to heaven – in a 4-2-3-1, with Chrysostomos Michail and Nuno Morais sitting in front of the back four, Nectarious Alexandrou looking peachy on the left side of midfield, Constantinos Charalambides on the right and Helio Pinto operating in the hole behind striker Nenad Miroavljevic.

Chelsea will forego their diamonmd formation and play Juliano Belleti in front of the back four behind Michael Essien and Frank Lampard in the centre of midfield, with Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda on the right and left flanks respectively. Nicolas Anelka will paddle his own canoe up front.

Apoel Nicosia: Chiotis, Poursaitides, Kontis, Grncarov, Haxhi, Charalambidis, Morais, Michael, Alexandrou, Pinto, Mirosavljevic.
Subs: Kissas, Papathanasiou, Kosowski, Satsias, Elia, Jean Paulista, Breska.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Belletti, Essien, Lampard, Kalou, Anelka, Malouda.
Subs: Hilario, Joe Cole, Zhirkov, Deco, Sturridge, Hutchinson, Bruma.

Referee: Bertrand Layec (France)

Unconvincing reasons why Chelsea might not have it all their own way tonight

• Tonight is Apoel’s home debut in the Champions League, so they’ll be fired up for a game against glamourous opposition. In their away debut, they held Atletico Madrid to a scoreless draw.

• Apoel are no slouches at home, having won all three of their games at the GSP in the preliminary qualifying rounds.

• Chelsea failed to win on their travels in last season’s Champions League group stages.

• Eh … Apoel manager Ivan Jovanović’s star sign is Cancer and his horoscope for today reads: “You should know by now that your side paths lead to some amazing places.” (Translation: play with two wide men attacking Chelsea’s full-backs down the flanks.)

• Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, by contrast, is a Gemini and his horoscope for today reads: “Ambiguity rules the day, so misunderstandings are that much more likely.” (Translation: expect more of the comedy defending by John Terry and Ricardo Carlvaho that kept Wigan’s fans so heartily amused last Saturday afternoon.)

• Im a Pisces, by the way. My horoscope reads: “With two Champions League matches to choose from tonight, expect to end up reporting on the rubbish one.” (Translation: Smyth’s sleeping with the boss.)

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the coming together in footballing rivalry of Cypriot champions Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias (translation: Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia) and Premier League runners-up and serial Champions League chokers Chelsea in tonight’s Group D set-to at the Pancyprian Gymnastic Association Stadium (GSP Stadium) in Nicosia, Cyprus.

First, a confession: my knowledge of Cypriots is negligible, restricted as it is to occasional snippets gleaned from a former landlord of mine in Clapham, London. What I can tell you is that, in my very limited experience, they take great umbrage at being referred to as “Greeks”, but enormous pride in renting out flats heated by boilers that haven’t been serviced by a Corgi card-carrying professional for 16 years.

They also have no problem letting themselves into these flats at any time of day or night to violently hit the these death-trap boilers with a large spanner and consider one £3.99 bottle of corner-shop piss to be a perfectly acceptable Christmas gift, even though they’re trousering nearly £20,000 a year tax free in rent from the three people expected to share it. I feel a riff coming on – please feel free to help embellish tonight’s report by sending in your landlord horror stories.

But I digress, back to tonight’s match. Despite coming into it on the back of a hiding at the hands of Wigan Athletic, Chelsea are 1-3 favourites to win this evening, even without Didier Drogba and Jose Boswinga, who are sitting out the second game of the respective three- and two-match bans handed down by Uefa for their petulant tomfoolery at the end of last season’s semi-final defeat against Barcelona.