Why have England's two biggest clubs linked up with struggling Belgian outfits? To get easy access to the African market, of course. Dan Brennan reports

A country that consistently manages to field a team of 30-something geriatrics in the World Cup wouldn’t seem like the first place to go looking for young talent. On the face of it, in fact, the idea of a Belgian nursery club seems like a bit of a contradiction in terms. Odd then, perhaps, that England’s top two clubs, Manchester United and Arsenal, with the world seemingly at their fingertips, should have got into bed with a pair of cash-strapped Flemish strugglers, Royal Antwerp and Beveren.

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Football Focus presenter Ray Stubbs explains to Andy Lyons how the BBC's flagship has coped with the loss of highlights rights, and how it dealt with the ITV Digital story

Some might say Football Focus has be­come more fan-oriented over time, but the prog­ramme is always evolving and you don’t particularly notice which way it’s going unless you sit back and look at the tapes of it season by season. Sometimes the BBC might set the agenda, ITV comes up with a response, then Sky, then that in turn might trigger a response from us. We all take the lead at different times. I’m not someone who will just say “the BBC leads the way”, but at the same time I am proud of what we do. I think our public ser­vice broadcast remit does enable us to go a little bit deeper in our coverage than some other broadcasters might feel they are able to.

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Portsmouth are one of several Football League clubs keen to keep ITV crews out of their ground, in spite of the proposed new deal. Steven Morgan reports

Money isn’t everything. The old cliche might sound even more trite than usual coming from a sup­porter of Ports­mouth, a club propped up by a billionaire chairman. However, it does seem to carry a ring of truth in the Fratton Park boardroom at present, at least where ITV are concerned.

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John Bourn looks back at ITV's neglected trump card, its regional coverage

When ITV’s outgoing director of programmes, Da­vid Liddiment, criticised the BBC in a newspaper interview on August 19, their response was cutting: Liddiment was accused of “having presided over the most disastrous period in ITV’s history”.

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Harry Pearson welcomes a new biography of the Charlton brothers that looks more sympathetically on Bobby's personality and flays his detractors

When it comes to the Charlton brothers, most peo­ple probably concur with the assessment Big Jack apparently delivered to Ron Atkinson: “Our kid was the better footballer, but I am the better bloke.”

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