English football's wholesale embrace of foreign ownership is about to suffer its first serious test. West Ham United, who in 2006 were bought by Icelandic duo Björgólfur Guðmundsson and Eggert Magnússon, have been caught up in the financial crisis that has engulfed the tiny country. The collapse and possible insolvency of Iceland's second largest bank Landsbanki, in which current Hammers chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson was a major shareholder, means that the club have nothing in the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 6th October 1985: Police Constable Keith Blakelock, whilst protecting firefighters during a riot in Tottenham, trips over and falls to the ground. Before he can regain his feet, he is hacked to death by a mob carrying knives and machetes. Tuesday – 7th October 2000: The last ever competitive football match to take place at the old Wembley Stadium results in England losing 1-0 to Germany. Wednesday......

The travails of our fantasy football team of capital-born players. Read previous entries here. As the good ship Spurs sinks and every subeditor stretches for the inevitable naval metaphor, one wonders about the last time both North London teams were humbled at home in the same week. We've no Statto on the books, so anybody with an answer please leave us a comment, but it's rare that both should lose in quick succession against......

Photo of Emirates Stadium by Herschell Hershey via the Londonist pool The travails of our fantasy football team of capital-born players. Read previous entries here Stunned Gooners fans were the rueful subjects for 24 hours worth of mirth by their north London rivals over the weekend. On Saturday, Arsenal were humbled at home by Hull, who came back from a single goal deficit to record the shock of the season by beating Wenger's team 2-1.......

The weather's looking fine for this weekend, which is good news for the Aspire Football Tournament at the Westway Sports Centre. The five-a-side event, which is raising money for the charity Aspire, is still looking for a few more teams, so round your mates up, offer a little tactical advice (maybe with a little help from Arsene Wenger's school of motivational theory), and drill them in the set pieces, then set out to win that......

It's been a difficult first week at the helm for West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola. A tidy win against Newcastle on Saturday was followed on Tuesday by a Carling Cup humbling at the hands of Watford. Now Hammers striker (and Londonist United regular) Carlton Cole has found himself under arrest on suspicion of drink driving in central London. Police apprehended the 24-year old in the wee hours of Tuesday morning as he was driving along......

The travails of our fantasy football team of capital-born players. Read previous entries here Last week's European action left us wishing Champions League or (soon to be renamed) Uefa Cup goals counted in the Prem. Chelsea's binge on Bordeaux saw Londonist United's Frank Lampard and Joe Cole on the scoresheet, while elsewhere Portsmouth's away win involved the inevitable Jermain Defoe goal and a clean sheet for Sol Campbell. There may have been a Euro......

Has the return of the football season and England's phoenix-like rise from ashes of Steve McClaren's incompetence inspired you to lace those aging leather boots up again? If so, you're in luck. Saturday, 27th September will see the Aspire Five-A-Side Football Tournament kick off at Westway Sports Centre in west London. Now in its second year, the tournament raises money for Aspire, the charity wing of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. It's the......

A fortnight free of Premier League fixtures saw redemption for the national side and the rise of a new England hero, not to mention one of the most chaotic transfer weeks in living memory. This weekend it was back to Blighty with a bump for Londonist United, our team of capital-reared characters, as we enter week four. Yesterday, new British transfer record signing Robinho lined up for his first game in England wearing a......

The epic saga of Dimitar Berbatov's transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester United finally drew to a close in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but its repercussions could last into the New Year and well beyond. For some time Spurs have been vying with Everton for the mantle of English football's fifth best club, something that would have seemed a dubious honour ten years ago, but would now be seen by many as......

Last season Leeds United started their League One campaign fifteen points in the hole, a mandatory FA penalty for any club that goes into administration during the football year. Londonist United, our fantasy crew of London-born players, finds itself in a similar situation; not because of any financial regularity (heck, we managed to assemble a cracking capital team with change from £50m), but we were too busy clowning around in August to actually register......

At midnight on September 1st, the football transfer window will slam shut, and in the final two days a rush of players will be defenestrated, squeezed through and sent across the country and beyond as last-minute deals are sealed and questionable buys rubber-stamped by dubious chairmen. The lucre that pumps football's beating heart, one that grows increasingly sullied as morally dubious characters purchase cherished clubs, will see footballers untimely ripped from their locales and......

You may remember that we previewed the 2008 World Gay Football Championships, which took place over the last week in Regent's Park. We're happy to report that our very own Leftfooters FC organised the tournament, which seemed to embody the best of British - fun, sporting achievement, fair play, and a sense of community. Forty teams of men and women competed in three Leagues for six days, watched over by 56 referees. Today the......

So - what to do after the Olympic Games? How will we cope when the sport finishes - and before the Paralympic Games get going a few weeks later? One option is to enjoy six days of international gay football. For the first time, London is about to proudly host the World Gay & Lesbian Football Championships from 24-30 August. "Over 50 teams from six continents" (damn that Antarctica!) will battle it out to......

Anita Asante has starred for club and country over the last five seasons in either midfield or defence and is renowned for her pace, aerial ability and fierce tackling. She gained her first international cap in her debut season and went on to be part of the Arsenal Ladies celebrated quadruple winning squad of 2006/7. Earlier this month Anita and Gunners team-mate Lianne Sanderson surprised many by switching to Chelsea who are only beginning......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 28th July 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed for treason at the Tower of London, at the behest of Henry VIII. Tuesday – 29th July 1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral. Wednesday – 30th July 1966: England defeat West Germany in the FIFA World Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, claiming the Jules Rimet Trophy (and, of course, the status of Football World Champions......

Having successfully exported cholera, colonialism and the Cross to the New World, Blighty is now making an attempt at sending hooliganism Stateside, too: a friendly match between West Ham United and Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew was marred by a scuffle between supporters on Sunday. The Hammers, on a pre-season tour of America in which they will play in the MLS All-Star Game, won the match 3-1, but local newspapers reported that in......

The men may have had the summer off to relax, but England's Ladies team are already back in action and last night faced world champions Germany (above) in a friendly. Alex Stone of the Football Association sent us this report: Germany concluded their Olympic preparations with a comfortable 3-0 victory over England in front of a vocal crowd of 9,185 at the Sportpark Unterhaching last night. England started confidently and after a short passing......

Lowly Charlton Athletic have raised the hackles of officials in Tehran. How so? Through military brinkmanship and the threat of sanctions if the country doesn't start toeing the official nuclear line? Nope. They've cancelled a football match against the Iranian national team. The friendly was scheduled to be played this Saturday in Spain, but Charlton pulled out at the last minute. We can't help think their decision may have been influenced by Iran's spectacular......

Tings are lookin proper bad for footballer Ashley-Paul Robinson, ya get me? The 19-year old Crystal Palace winger is in a spot of bother after he inadvertantly revealed his plans to move to Fulham on his Facebook profile. In an update on Saturday, the strikingly erudite Robinson alerted chums about his potential move to Craven Cottage with the following gnomic status update: "Ashley-Paul is goin fulham on Monday. If I pull dis off im......

Over the last few years it has become popular to enjoy football matches in the pub, rather than at the stadiums themselves. This is even more true of the often far-flung international summer tournaments and increasingly people want to watch each match alongside supporters who have a vested interest in its outcome. Two years ago we were one of several sites offering tips on where to go around London to watch Iran, Argentina, Ghana......

As the country dangles on the brink of European Championship fever we ride that wave of euphoria in bringing you some updates on football pieces we featured a few months ago. Our first priority here must be to praise the winner of this season's Londonist Fantasy Football League title, so let's hear it for the redoubtable Diaby Does Gallas FK who, having snatched top spot from Hopeless XI as we reported in January, held......

In a move that came as a surprise to nobody in football, Chelsea yesterday rewarded manager Avram Grant for getting them within a goalpost's width of their first European Cup by terminating his contract. According to a statement released on the club's website Saturday afternoon, the Israeli coach, and sometime rodent disturber, was dismissed following a series of meetings over the past two days. Peter Kenyon prefigured the decision earlier in the week, when......

While all eyes were fixed on Moscow last night, the Russians braced for a traditional British hooligan rampage, trouble actually flared up closer to home on Fulham Broadway. Disgruntled Chelsea fans gathered there after their team crashed out of the Champions' League final on penalties, and with a crushing inevitability clashes with police broke out soon afterwards. Around 400 fans surged into the street after Anelka missed the final penalty of the game, blocking......

FA Cup final day dawns and, as supporters representing the competition's former temporary home in Cardiff return the visits made by Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham and Millwall they are joined by fans of Portsmouth, the club who have retained the trophy for the longest time courtesy of beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-1 in the last pre-war running of the world famous tournament. Many devotees of both teams are exiled in the capital and one such......

For the first time since Tottenham Hotspur dashed Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough's dreams of FA Cup glory in 1991 the final is being contested without a representative from English football's current Big Four. Just before 3pm on Saturday the fans of Portsmouth and Cardiff City will watch their teams stride out at Wembley for a match which will decide which of them will parade the famous trophy that neither has lifted since the......

Wembley Stadium is a modern marvel - Conde Nast in particular were mightily impressed by it - and it is surely one of the finest footballing cathedrals in the world today. So how come it hasn't yet been given the glad-eye from UEFA when they choose the venue for the Champions League final? Turns out that a somewhat arcane tax law has thus far presented Wembley being considered. Our government currently taxes overseas players......

It's considered the most lucrative game in world football. The team that wins the Championship playoff final earns entry into the Premier League and all the trappings of fame and money that come with it. Some estimate that promotion can earn a club upward of £60 million, so for the managers, chairmen, players and fans, the next two weeks are likely to see nails bitten down to the quick. Things kick off tomorrow, and......

"Everything is better with a bit of humour." So said Roberto Donadoni, as Italian football manager the incumbent of one of the most pressurised posts in the world, last Monday night in a special seminar organised by Birkbeck College Sport Business Centre. A healthy dose of self-deprecation is a useful asset in a job where your public always let you know who you're working for and what you should be doing: "This happened just......

In football, as everywhere else in 21st century life, the issue of "local versus global" is coming increasingly to the fore. This week the Birkbeck College Sport Business Centre in Bloomsbury, renowned for its research into the business of sport in general and football in particular, is providing a week packed full of education and debate on subjects of pressing concern to all those devoted to the game. Tonight from 6:30pm at the Brunei......