Their was shock when Portugal won the rights to stage Euro 2004, but as Phil Town explains, it won't be an easy ride

Portuguese emotions have been on a veritable roller-coaster ride of late. The plight of its ex-colony East Timor cut the national psyche deep, then the is­land’s resistance leaders visited and the streets of Lis­bon were paved with petals. Spirits plunged again with three days of mourning for the singer and nat­ional institution Amelia Rodrigues, but straight away foot­ball dragged the nation back up by its bootlaces.

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Dan McCauley is not the most popular man in Devon, as David Pay explains

Distinguishing features Slobodan Milosevic lookalike from north Devon. Has also been chairman of Tiverton Town and on the board of Exeter City. According to the Times list of wealthy people, he has a fortune larger than the chairmen of Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea. He is Fat Dan, aka the Fat Controller.

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Bradford City and Lincoln City are up in arms about a programme made in the USA regarding the Bradford fire. David Pendleton finds out why

Over the 14 years since the Bradford fire I can barely remember any adverse publicity. It be­came a private disaster, rarely talked about and only in the public domain on the anniversary when a sombre ceremony is held at the mem­orial in Bradford city centre.

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Ron Noades continued influence over Crystal Palace and stadium trouble at Oldham Athletic and Swansea City

There are league rules that prevent one person owning two clubs (although as the Peter Johnson case shows, they do not mean much) but there is nothing to stop someone in control of one club from owning another club’s ground. This is the case at Crystal Palace, where the extraordinary terms of their lease with former owner Ron Noades have left him with a significant presence.

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UEFA seem intent on changing the transfer system. Guy Osborn & Steve Greenfield explain how this could affect England and beyond

It seems barely a week goes past these ­days without a new proposal to regulate the international movement of players. The most rec­ent have involved reintroducing restrictions on foreigners, standardising transfer win­dows across Europe and effectively abol­ishing the transfer system. Yet again, it appears that poor old Jean-Marc Bosman is the root cause of most of these ideas.

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