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......

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......

If you want to see title-challenging Chelsea entertain Wigan at Stamford Bridge on Monday night you can expect to fork out between £40 and £65 for the privilege, but tonight you can watch a cup final there for free as Chelsea host Manchester City in the first leg of the climax of the FA's youth tournament. The second leg will take place in Manchester on 16th April. If you can make it in time......

Our own brave lads might be about to do battle with the mighty French in Paris (insert inappropriate Agincourt reference here), but even though there's nothing on at Wembley this time around that's no reason to miss out on some excellent live international footy this Wednesday evening. Indeed, our new national stadium will be hoping that the continuing prestige of London as a second footballing home for other countries rubs off when venues are......

The London Zoological Society have managed some more ground breaking footage with a film of these pygmy hippos in the wild. Londonist wants one of these. At least someone’s happy about the rain: the freesheet house will apparently be all the stronger for it. Football’s coming home. Well, Becks is, anyway. And Posh. Better to be a big fish in a small sea ‘n’ all that. Life is boring without the booze: a sober......

Richard Scudamore of the Premier League has not been the most popular footballing figure of the last few weeks. The executives overseeing football in favoured destinations for his plan of playing Premier League matches abroad, such as China, Thailand and the USA, have lined up to express their objections, as has the President of world football's governing body, FIFA. However, not every land that loves football comes under FIFA's aegis. Scudamore might be able......

You can tell the vintage of an Ethiopian male by the team he favors... Granddads like Liverpool, dads ManU, and young men Arsenal. The emerging generation seems to be leaning toward Chelsea. Why all British? The BBC, of course. Next to Coke and Pepsi, Arsenal was the most visible Western brand in the country. So says Angry Monk, taker of the above shot of a taxi driver in Awasa. His observations will come as......

Last year Arsenal won everything in sight, a clean sweep of domestic and European trophies. Manager Vic Akers was delighted to secure four triumphs from four competitions. We are, of course, talking about the Ladies team who tonight take on Everton at Leyton Orient's Matchroom Stadium to defend the first of that quartet of titles, in the FA Tesco Women's Premier League Cup Final, kick off 7:35pm. The game is also live on Sky......

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......

As the repercussions continue around the Premiership's shock announcement that it was going to take its brand of football around the world in a weekend, its chief executive Richard Scudamore is determined that the plan should survive in some way, shape or form. As we mentioned last week, FIFA's regional associations and its president Sepp Blatter himself have come out in opposition to the idea of our league matches encroaching on their territories at......