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......

It sometimes seems like Battersea Power Station's long term prospects will never be decided and she'll turn to rubble while a tawdry procession of developers hatch unlikely plans. Under such uncertainty, however, the grand old dilapidated dame seems to be developing a maverick sub-career as venue of choice for smart opportunists in need of a Thames-side landmark with decent public transport connections. For example, this October will see World Cup snowboarding hurtling past the......

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......

Returning from the Beijing Olympics a gold medal bearing hero, boxer James DeGale must now face another kind of battle - that within himself over whether to stick it out with Team GB for London 2012 and defend his title in his hometown or to capitulate to the admittedly attractive and lucrative professional career that could instantly make him a millionaire and an even bigger celebrity. Amir Khan barely lasted a year after his......

Taking to the stage at the Handover Party in Beijing, his successful flag-unfurling and debut on the international stage complete, Mayor Boris Johnson finally returned to a theme he has occasionally expounded since his election in May: expanding the capital's lexicon. Having re-introduced us to the joys of "piffle" and "cripes" in his three months at the City Hall tiller, the Mayor used the opportunity of addressing London's bid team to discourse on the......

Well, who would have thought we'd reach our fourteenth and final London Olympic Timetable worried that a fluffed handover in the women's 4x100m relay might let the Russians chase Britain down in the overall medal table? The good news is Team GB could yet strike more gold in the final 48 hours of the game and one man in prime position to achieve just that is West London middleweight boxer James DeGale who defied......

Gold! Gold, I tell 'ee. Gold, in them thar doldrums, damn yer eyes! Ahh, hahahahahaha! We 'opes you'll forgive us old sea dogs splicin' the mainbrace in honour of our crew what's brought treasure back to these shores. Aye, aye! It's first mate Andrew Simpson o' Chertsey and his cap'n Iain Percy takin' our golden haul to five in the Star class sailing. Ahh, hahahaha... [That's enough piracy - Scurvy Landlubbing Ed] The excellent......

Unbelievably, the Olympics end this Sunday. But never fear, if your appetite for obscure sport has yet to be sated you can look forward to the World Freerun Championships coming up on 3 September. The interior of the Roundhouse in Camden will be transformed into a challenging urban landscape for the competition and 20 of the world's best freerunners will be showcasing their awesome skill, fearlessness and artistry with Britain represented by Pip Anderson......

More medals for Britain, and "Team London", yesterday, but the seemingly relentless success in some sports is causing a nervous shuffling of feet in others. After Twickenham's Mo Farah slipped out of the 5,000m heats Brendan Foster, BBC commentator and former Olympic medallist at 10,000m, could contain himself no longer: I just feel Mo Farah ran a very poor race. He needs to be taught how to run tactically. He's got a good finish......

Team GB's dominance in the Olympic cycling events was consolidated yesterday with Victoria Pendleton's women's sprint victory and Chris Hoy's third gold medal of the Games (fourth of his career) closely followed by team mate Jason Kenny with the silver in the men's sprint. Come the victory parade in October, there will be an impressive retinue of medal holders from the cycling contingent and we're holding out for more to join their ranks following......

And it came to pass that Team GB didst look upon their works and, behold, they were good. And on the twelfth day they rested. Well, comparatively speaking anyway. Today there are only eleven gold medals available across the whole games, the fewest on any official competition day except the opening Saturday where events were barely getting started. Even on the final day of competition twelve golds are up for grabs. Just like the......

Quick quiz - which Olympic sport, flouting the notion of gender equality, is the only one without a women's programme? Boxing is the answer. Despite the male pugilists getting to pound eachother into the ground, women's boxing (not to be confused with foxy boxing) remains on the outside looking in. That may change come 2012. The Amateur International Boxing Association is planning on making a proposal to introduce female fighters at the London games,......

Even though we're ten days into the Games of the 29th Olympiad there are still some competitors yet to get their campaigns underway. Two such athletes are pre-Beijing Londonist interviewees Jessica Walker (above left) and Anna Hemmings who, at 11am precisely (all times BST) will have about 1 minute and 40 seconds to paddle their kayak over the 1000m course at Shunyi, recently vacated by the rowers, and qualify for Thursday morning's semi-finals. They've......

Please sit down before reading this. Great Britain is third in the Olympic medal table. There's only China and the US ahead of us at the moment. Such lofty attainment is almost certainly unique in the years since we last held the Games ourselves in 1948. It's getting to the point where hard won silver and bronze medals in particular are having to fight to be noticed amongst headlines dripping with gold. Team London,......

As we pen this latest despatch from the land of Olympia we are hunched over our table, bracing ourselves for the avalanche of must-see denouments and prospective medals set to sweep us away on this middle Saturday of the Games. So far London can lay claim only to a share in Emma Pooley's road cycling silver, but over the next few hours the medal chances come thick and fast, not least in the rowing......

But hark! Is that the sound of the William Tell Overture in the distance? It is! And with it comes a marauding horde of London track and field competitors poised to take over the Olympic show as, for a lot of casual observers, the Olympics get properly underway. We at Londonist, as you know, look to wider horizons, but it was a bit difficult yesterday as both the sailors and the oarsfolk were forced......

While the world and its singlet waits in anticipation for tomorrow's opening of the 2008 Olympics, folk in London's Chinatown are less than excited, claims one report. Money worries mean the 100,000 strong Chinese community packed into Soho's eastern climes are less focused on the men's marathon than making ends meet at home. Rents are heading north, trade has shifted south since the July 2005 bombings, and tourist numbers are down across the city,......

Watch Friday's Olympic opening ceremony closely and you should see the broadest smiles in the whole parade on the faces of British flatwater canoeing pair Jessica Walker (left) and Anna Hemmings. Based in London, the duo provide the classic partnership of youthful talent and accomplished experience as they prepare to take on the world over 500m of breakneck paddling. "We call it sprint racing," says Hemmings, "but 500m is a minute and forty seconds,"......

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......

On Friday, the best place to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is probably in the Bird's Nest Stadium. If you've mislaid your £373 ticket down the back of the sofa, there are still heaps of other options beside vegging at home and picking at a warmed-up chinese ready meal in front of the telly. The ceremony kicks off weeks of Olympic and Paralympic sport, with the BBC promising to......

Developers say they are unlikely to accept a consortium's offer to safeguard greyhound racing at Walthamstow Stadium. The site's owners, London and Quadrant Housing Trust, reckon the bid is "not genuinely viable", and will continue with their selfless plan to "ease homelessness" through a housing development, which will (by sheer coincidence) also turn a tidy profit. Despite a "show of strength" outside the stadium on Thursday night, time for the 'Stow is running out. Racing......

After yesterday's interview with men's captain Ben Hawes, today it's the turn of women's skipper Kate Walsh to talk exclusively to Londonist from the Olympic hockey squad's base in Macau. Kate has amassed multiple club and international medals across a distinguished career which has seen her win three domestic Player of the Year honours as well as being shortlisted for the World Player of the Year Award in 2003. Born in Manchester, she has......

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......

Ben Hawes made his international debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and has now made more than 140 appearances for England and Great Britain. He scored in Britain's opening 3-1 win over Egypt at the Athens 2004 Olympics, but the team could only go on to finish 9th. Having tasted club hockey in the Netherlands he's now back playing for Surbiton and has fought his way back from injury to be named......

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......

In today's tale of Olympic overspend: it seems a clutch of consultants, hired to wrestle the budgetary reigns and keep costs under control, have trousered some £87 million in the process. According to a government report, the consortium CLM, a regular Olympic opportunist which has found work helping the Sydney and Beijing Games, was appointed to oversee a number of construction projects and ensure that costs were managed diligently. Yet that remit didn't preclude......

With the flood of recriminations about its cost and suitability yet to subside, work begins today on the aquatics centre at the Stratford Olympic site. Despite final blueprints yet to be agreed, concrete piles for the building's foundations are being installed, nearly two months ahead of schedule. The centre, with its distinctive sloping roof, has gone from being the darling of the design community to a metaphor for Olympian overspend, an initial projected cost......

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......