Beckham appeals: David Beckham has made a television appeal urging fans not to damage England's chances of reaching the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.
"We are working as a team to try and reach the finals of this competition and hopefully the fans are not going to spoil it," the England captain said yesterday.
"Respect has to be shown to the opposition. Booing the national anthem is disrespectful. Racism and jumping on the pitch has definitely got to stop. It's going to get us in a lot of trouble."
England's Football Association have been fined and warned about the conduct of supporters after racist abuse, two pitch invasions and 95 arrests marred a Euro qualifying victory over Turkey in April.
AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, meanwhile, played down talk of the European champions signing Beckham. He said the player would cost too much for the club who would rather buy a defender.
City get UEFA spot
Kevin Keegan's Manchester City were celebrating yesterday after learning their new stadium would be playing host to European football next year.
City, who last played in Europe in the 1978/79 season, qualified for the qualifying round of the UEFA Cup after England were awarded an extra spot in the competition as a reward for topping the UEFA fair play league.
City's fair play record was only the fifth best in England but the sides above them - Manchester United, Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool - already qualified for Europe.
From next season City will be playing at the City of Manchester stadium. The club have already sold 36,000 season tickets for the 48,000-capacity venue.
Free for all
Republic of Ireland centre half Gary Breen was among the record number of players released by their Premiership clubs in England yesterday.
The continuing financial downturn in the game, which saw Ipswich, Derby County and Huddersfield slip into administration last season, has prompted more cutbacks with a record 586 players made available on free transfers. Breen's one-year contract at West Ham was not extended. Also released were two of Breen's team-mates, volatile Italian Paolo di Canio and veteran full back Nigel Winterburn.
Those let go include big names such as Jody Morris and Ed de Goey (Chelsea); Patrik Berger (Liverpool); Keith Gillespie and Henning Berg (Blackburn Rovers); Alen Boksic (Middlesbrough); Oleg Luzny (Arsenal) and Kevin Davies (Southampton).
UEFA Cup changes
UEFA have decided to break convention and play Champions League and UEFA Cup ties in different weeks next season.
European football's governing body are keen to boost the profile of a competition which has been massively overshadowed by the success of the Champions League.
And, having reduced the number of match days in the Champions League next season by abandoning the second group phase, UEFA will fill some of the spare weeks by playing their secondary competition.
It means the first leg of the opening round will be played on Wednesday, September 24th, in between the first two group matches in the Champions League, with the second leg scheduled for October 15th.
However, the second round will revert to the position it has previously held, on the Thursday after a round of Champions League matches on November 6th and 27th.
Amoruso leaving
Scottish Cup final hero Lorenzo Amoruso has confirmed that he will be leaving Rangers this summer, despite manager Alex McLeish's reluctance to lose the Italian centre-half.
Amoruso, 32, headed the Cup final winner against Dundee on Saturday, enabling Rangers to complete their second treble since he arrived in Glasgow six years ago.
English Premiership side Blackburn have offered £1.5 million for the player and with Rangers struggling to cope with reported debts in excess of £60 million, the club looks certain to sell given that Amoruso will be a free agent at the end of next season.
Kinnear too dear
Luton would have gone bust if they had kept on paying Joe Kinnear his £420,000-a-year salary, according to prospective new chairman Roger Terrell.
Kinnear and his number two Mick Harford were dismissed 10 days ago after a mystery consortium took control of the club, sparking angry demonstrations from fans.
But former Peterborough vice-chairman Terrell insisted keeping faith with Kinnear, who had won promotion from Division Three with Luton, would have had grave financial implications for the club.
In brief ...
Li Tie's future at Everton is in doubt after the midfielder's Chinese club Liaoning said they would not sanction another year's loan deal.
Blackburn have denied allegations they are holding Birmingham to ransom after they turned down a Blues bid of £5.5 million for midfielder David Dunn - to be paid in instalments - last week.
