A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Barcelona cry foul
Chelsea will wait to see how their battered Stamford Bridge pitch stands up to three home games in a week before deciding whether to relay it. The Blues are due to play Colchester in the FA Cup this Sunday, Barcelona in the Champions League next Wednesday and Portsmouth three days later. Already the pitch looks little better than a ploughed field but despite mounting criticism, they admit they have missed the biggest "window" of opportunity to give the pitch a facelift before the end of the season.
Barcelona, who completed the relaying of their own pitch at the Nou Camp last week, seem to be convinced that Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho is content to let the Stamford Bridge surface become even worse before next Wednesday's showdown to unsettle the Spanish league leaders' artistic stars.
Happy with stadiums
A leading world soccer official gave German stadiums a vote of confidence yesterday and played down fears that terrorists would attempt to target this summer's World Cup. Walter Gagg, director of stadium security for Fifa, said he was "more than satisfied" with the 12 stadiums that will host the tournament, despite a critical report last month from a consumer watchdog. "We are happy, we have good stadiums here in Germany, they have full security infrastructure," he told a conference in Berlin.
Irish under-17 squad
Sean McCaffrey has named a squad of 18 for next week's Algarve invitational tournament which the manager will use as preparation for the elite qualifying stage of this year's European Under-17 Championships in Dublin at the end of next month, reports Emmet Malone. Ireland are due to play France on Saturday week, Portugal the following day and the Netherlands on January 28th.
The FAI are making a number of complimentary tickets available to schools and underage clubs for next month's European games. Contact ticket info section of the FAI website at www.fai.ie.
IRELAND (Under-17 squad): S Redmond (Nottingham Forest), P Skinner (Celtic), A Callaghan (Millwall), G Donoghue (Sunderland), G Breen (Manchester City), M Spillane (Norwich City), L Fitzgerald (West Ham), M O'Toole (Norwich City), P Cahillane (Celtic), M Daly (Manchester City), G Carey (Celtic), H Arter (Charlton Athletic), S Duggan (Fairview, Limerick), K Byrne (Belvedere), T Lyons (Crystal Palace), T Dixon (Tottenham Hotspur), C Sheridan (Belvedere), C Fagan (Manchester United).
In brief . . .
Galway United have announced that local company Harrmack Developments has taken over as the First Division club's main sponsor . . . Hector Cuper has quit as coach of Real Mallorca following the club's slide to the bottom of the Primera Liga . . . Newcastle yesterday dismissed suggestions that Jonathan Woodgate could return to the club from Real Madrid.
