A Premiership title decided well before the final day and an FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City are not likely to enchant English football's television paymasters around the world. Many football fans are delighted at Wembley's unexpected May guests, but a predictable league combined with a cup competition that appears to be losing the attention of the big teams while they remain in Europe look like a recipe for stagnation and possible......

While the weekend's football may have been dominated by FA Cup upsets, for the red corner of North London, Sunday March 9th was memorable for a more unusual reason. St.Totteringham's Day is one of those arcane bits of football rivalry that makes the game so enjoyable. It falls every season on the day when it becomes mathematically impossible for Spurs to overtake rivals Arsenal in the Premier League. Despite the Gooner's anaemic draw against......

The world of English football wobbled a few degrees off its axis yesterday when a club not called Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United or Liverpool won a major trophy. This hadn't happened for four years, since Middlesbrough were victorious in the Football League Cup final against Bolton, but Jonathan Woodgate's one-two with Petr Cech ensured that Tottenham Hotspur would claim their first proper silverware since they won the same competition in 1999 under the stewardship......

Jens Lehmann might be damaging his chances of playing in goal for Germany by allowing himself to spend an extended period on Arsenal's substitutes' bench since being dropped early in the season, but there's no way he's going to try his luck back in his native country, or probably even outside the M25. Speaking as rumours of a move to former club Borussia Dortmund surfaced, the often forthright custodian explained: Crime levels are really......

It's entirely in the nature of ducks that they can fly under the radar, but only in fairy tales do kings arrive unannounced. Nevertheless, even those who would count themselves fans of ice hockey may be surprised to learn that the O2 Arena this weekend hosts not just one, but two clashes between a pair of North American professional teams. And not just a pre-season slapabout, mind you. These are the opening fixtures of......

Although largely un-reported by the mainstream press, Arsenal Ladies Football Club have this week have put the cherry on top of a feat which is a minor miracle in football terms. This accomplishment has never been bettered or equalled by their English counterparts, male or female, and unlikely to occur again. By securing the Premier League title, The UEFA Cup, the League Cup and the FA Cup they have powered their way to an......

Well here's a suprise. The cost of another major engineering project (Tube refits) is soaring. Who could have predicted? Attack bus driver, hijack bus, three times over the drinking limit, with no licence, smash up 15 parked cars and a garden porch. Sentence? Oh, go home and just behave yourself. Cars are also flying around in Beckenham. More than 1% of the FA Cup crowd will be police officers. Queen mum memorial revealed. Gawd......

Boycott overpriced food and merchandise at the FA Cup final!!! And take an umbrella. Charity bike ride. They'll cross that bridge when they come to it, 14 times. Holy smoke! Dean of Southwark not happy with smoking ban. Image courtesy of dartar via the Londonist flickr group.......

Chelsea and Arsenal have both won it in the past, but this year's London Senior Cup, premier competition of the London Football Association, will be fought over by Bromley FC and Tooting & Mitcham United who, as it happens, are also staging the final at their Imperial Fields ground (pictured above). The cup, which these days is "open to all non-F.A. Premier League and non-Football League Senior Clubs affiliated to the Association or approved......

After two successful public test events the new Wembley has been granted its test certificate by Brent Council and the FA has wasted no time in announcing the stadium as the venue for May 19th's FA Cup Final which could yet feature the dream final of Chelsea v Watford, though it might just as well see Blackburn facing Manchester United. The FA also confirmed that the players of Stevenage Borough and Kidderminster Harriers (FA......

Same as the old Wembley? Several bloggers were fortunate enough to be among the 60,000 Brent residents to be invited to the first public event at the new stadium and their first impressions sound a strangely familiar note. Rascal Houdi on The National Midday Sun message board concludes: Stadium, superb.....signage, catering & transport, must do better. In fairness, the new owners have only had the keys for a week and are working like crazy......

Once it was a name that evoked magic, dreams and destiny. In recent years it's taken on connotations of folly, nightmare and derision, but now it looks finally as if Wembley might be ready to resume its place at the very top of the pantheon of British sporting venues. The troubled new stadium has been granted its fire alarm safety certificate, the first tangible evidence that it might really be ready to hold all......

Mark Watson is a comedian. You may have seen him on the box on 'Nevermind the Buzzcocks', 'Mock The Week' or 'Time Trumpet'. You may have heard his Radio 4 show, 'Mark Watson makes the world substantially better'. You may have seen him live, perhaps on his current tour of his show 'I'm worried that I'm starting to hate almost everyone in the world' or perhaps you attended or have heard of his legendary......

It might not be a vintage season in the league, where many of the capital's football clubs are looking nervously over their shoulders at relegation, but London seems determined to have at least one finalist in the first FA Cup showpiece at the new Wembley as yesterday's draw offered the possibility that as many as 44% of the fourth round matches (seven out of sixteen) could be played on our collective doorstep on the......

The missing teenager and her 18-month-old cousin who went missing from Fulham last Thursday have been found safe and well in Harrow. The FA are apparently confident that next season's FA Cup will be held at Wembley and they have no plans to book the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (might be all down the park then). Following the tat extravaganza that was last year's debut London International Tattoo Convention, the second one has just......

Just because Liverpool have won their last 11 games, beaten West Ham twice this season, not lost to them at all for seven years, finished 27 points ahead of them in the league and have kept 33 clean sheets in the last nine months some people think they’ll win the FA Cup final in Cardiff tomorrow. However, Londonist is undaunted in our belief that the spirit of Sir Trevor’s head will see the Hammers......

Early May sees the domestic football charabanc trundling to its terminus for another year, top deck swathed in streamers and bunting for the winners and survivors, lower deck sheltering the shellshocked who’ve slipped at the last. Few grounds in the country will witness such a nail biting conflict of triumph and despair as the Kassam Stadium in Oxford where the home team must win to retain league status while our very own Leyton Orient......

At the weekend London maintained its record of having got at least one team to every FA Cup final played since the venue moved from Wembley to the Welsh capital when the ‘Appy Ammers reached the May 13th showdown much to the delight of West Ham legend Sir Trevor Brooking (pictured) who stooped to conquer Arsenal with the winning header in 1980, the last time the Upton Park side captured the trophy. These days......

Named only at the weekend as an official ambassador for London by mayor Ken Livingstone, Chelsea football club have wasted no time in offering assistance to China’s Olympic football team in the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Chelsea’s official site reports that Chief Executive Peter Kenyon is with a mayoral delegation in China as it tries to promote co-operation between London and Beijing, the hosts of the next two summer Olympiads.......

Barring emergencies, Football League managers will now have to make do with what they’ve got for the rest of the season as the deadline for loan signings passed yesterday. Only a few London clubs were at the last minute bargain counter and by far the most well-known player involved was 36 year old former England international Paul Warhurst who’ll be spending the rest of the season trying to help Barnet secure their place in......

Pencil the evening of Thursday May 25th into your diary as the FA have announced they are planning to arrange what they're calling a "B" friendly in London to give players outside Sven's starting eleven a run-out ahead of travelling to Germany for the World Cup. Though a specific venue has yet to be finalised Belarus are being lined up to face a team that could be almost entirely composed of players based in......

This day in London’s history 1966: The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen during a public exhibition ahead of the World Cup Finals, but was found just seven days later, wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of a suburban garden hedge in Norwood, by a dog named "Pickles". As a security measure, FIFA secretly manufactured a replica of the trophy for use in the post-match celebrations. The replica was also used on subsequent occasions until......

While the Football League and Premiership big boys continue their high profile campaigns the Londonist spotlight falls this weekend on two battles for non-league cup glory. Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park ground hosts Woking in the first leg of their FA Trophy semi-final on Saturday at 3pm. The remarkable thing about this fixture is that, while Woking currently lie 10th in the Nationwide Conference, Boreham Wood are nine points clear at the top of the......

There is always plenty for the football fan to think about when news reaches you of the passing of another great from generations past. In Peter Osgood's case, we might think of the swagger in the image of a young man that we never saw play, but understood that he was supposed to represent an idealised point in this city's history, when everyone swanned down the King's Road looking like Alfie or Twiggy. We......

The as yet unfinished Wembley Stadium has been under fire for most of it's embryonic life, at times literally and of late, figuratively. It has been confirmed that the stadium will not be ready in time for the FA Cup final which was to be Wembley's formal unveiling on 13 May, and a new date for the opening cannot be given by Australian building firm Multiplex. Losses have surpassed £75million and are creeping towards......

Last week, Fraser James used the power of Lawro to good effect, scoring a highly respectable 3 out of 5. After Sarah Johnson had hit the same score the previous week, we felt that the 'FPP' (as it's known in the corridors of power) was beginning to reach new heights of prediction excellence and consistency. Sadly, our balloon of complacency was soon pricked by the following missive... "You recent guest predictions have been disappointing,......

Like the majority of people we like looking at buildings but, if we're honest, we don't really know the first thing about architecture. Every now and again though a magazine, tv programme or website manages to cut through the smokescreen of architectural jargon and actually manages to educate and inform us about a building. The Filter does that for us on a regular basis. Striving to be "elevant and insightful for the expert, and......

Still waters run deep is how the proverb goes. And there are few athletes as still, as impenetrable as Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell. Here is a man who has spent the last thirteen years defying lazy footballer stereotypes whilst going about his business of de-constructing attacking moves with a level of stealth that is almost perverse in its ability to go unnoticed. All the while his sphinx-like visage and ice-cold demeanour have combined to keep......

There've been a few changes to the plans for the Olympic Park, in order to save on so many jobs and premises being relocated. Wembley now has a 70% chance of being completed in time for the FA Cup. The Heathrow Terminal 5 workers will start a 3 day strike today. Kate Moss has decided to come home, she'll be back at end of this week to make a 'full and frank' confession apparently (meanwhile,......

Hacks across the nation were gearing up today to shout a group "Ha Ha!" in a Nelson from the Simpsons stylee, as they anticpated the announcement from Multiplex, Australian constructors of the new Wembley, that the stadium was NOT going to be ready for the FA Cup Final in May. Our sporting scribes have had to put the schadenfreude on hold however, as the Aussies have instead proclaimed that they will be able to......