The Archive

Newcastle United are in the headlines as Mike Ashley prepares to sell the naming rights to St James' Park

Newcastle businessman Barry Moat has been depicted in the press as the club’s potential saviour for several months now but, like someone running up a down escalator, he never seems to get any closer to his goal. With Moat having reportedly failed to come up with the £80 million required to cut a deal, owner Mike Ashley has now taken the club off the market, appointed Chris Hughton as full-time manager and, to general dismay, auctioned the naming rights for St James’ Park.

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Gunther Simmermacher explains how the pressures of hosting a World Cup may be getting to South Africa

Even by the standards of South African football, the appointment of Brazilian coach Joel Santana to lead the national team, Bafana Bafana, at the 2010 World Cup was an eccentric decision. In April 2008 Carlos Alberto Parreira, the 1994 World Cup-winning coach, quit as South Africa coach to be with his ailing wife. South African Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant asked him to recommend a successor. Parreira suggested Santana, then at Flamengo.

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With Setanta gone, ESPN has immediately stepped into the gap. Cameron Carter reports

It is confusing to start to grieve for a lost channel only to find that its replacement fills the gap completely. No sooner had Setanta politely dropped off the twig than ESPN took its place, offering a Premier League match on Saturday, an Italian game on Sunday and European Cage Fighting and Bundesliga Review filling most hours in between.

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Despite three play-off semi-final defeats on the trot, the early 1990s were heady times for Merseyside's third team. Karl Sturgeon recalls

“Tranmere,” Johnny King once said, “will never be able to compete with Liverpool and Everton. They’re big liners like the Queen Mary, but I see Tranmere like a deadly submarine.”

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Natalia Sollohub examines whether a proposed semi-professional women's super league will actually happen

Anyone with even a passing interest in the women’s game in England will get a sense of déjà vu on hearing that a new summer league is due to kick off in 2011. The same announcement was greeted with much rejoicing just over a year ago with more than the required eight teams preparing applications to join the semi-professional Super League.

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