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Copenhagen climate conference

Most recent

  • COP15 US President Barack Obama Video (7min 41sec), 19 Dec 2009:

    Guardian Environment editor John Vidal examines the final frantic hours of Copenhagen's climate summit, including fury toward the US president and the world's richest countries who brokered a deal

  • Thom Yorke Video (4min 29sec), 18 Dec 2009:

    Environment editor John Vidal talks to the Radiohead singer at the Copenhagen conference about passing the buck, the NGOs left out and how to find out what's really going on

  • Ana Filippini Video (2min 18sec), 18 Dec 2009:

    Green vision video: Ana Filippini in Copenhagen: Monocultural plantations can be destructive for women's lives, and are not a solution to reducing emissions

  • John Vidal Video (5min 42sec), 17 Dec 2009:

    Environment editor John Vidal gives us his view on the last-ditch climate talks, and hears from three voices, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke

  • Rajendra Pachauri Video (3min 00sec), 17 Dec 2009:

    Green visions video: Rajendra Pachauri in Copenhagen: We need a grassroots movement to clearly convey to elected leaders that people expect firm and forward-looking action on climate change

  • activists at the Reclaim Power march in copenhagen Video (9min 35sec), 17 Dec 2009:

    On a day when NGOs were given limited access to the Copenhagen summit, protesters marched on the Bella centre to reclaim the climate debate back to the people most affected

  • Wangari Maathai Video (2min 08sec), 16 Dec 2009:

    Green visions video: Wangari Maathai in Copenhagen: Forests are under threat from logging, encroachment and human settlement. We must reach an ambitious and legally binding deal

  • Boris Johnson with George Monbiot Video (8min 14sec), 16 Dec 2009:

    Environmental columnist George Monbiot challenges Boris Johnson's green policies in an extraordinary meeting of world mayors in Copenhagen

  • COP15 California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Video (4min 41sec), 16 Dec 2009:

    US environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg follows America's climate change big guns at the UN summit in Copenhagen

  • President of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society, Marly Winckler Video (1min 37sec), 15 Dec 2009:

    Green vision video: Marly Winckler in Copenhagen: More than 80% of the Amazon's destruction is caused by cattle rearing. To mitigate emissions in Brazil we must address this issue

  • Jonathan Watts interviewing an electric car driver at the Copenhagen climate summit Video (4min 53sec), 15 Dec 2009:

    Asia environment correspondent Jonathan Watts looks at new green transport at the climate summit, and examines how corporations plan to take advantage of the environmental crisis

  • Poster at Copenhagen climate change summit Video (5min 11sec), 14 Dec 2009:

    Talks in Copenhagen stalled on day one of week two, with African nations accusing rich countries of trying to collapse the Kyoto protocol. Environment editor, John Vidal, gets to the heart of why Kyoto is still so important

  • Dr Vandana Shiva Video (1min 43sec), 14 Dec 2009:

    Green visions video: Dr Vandana Shiva in Copenhagen: Organic farming can play a key role in protecting the planet

  • Tadzio Muller, an alternative delegate to the Copnhagen climate conference Video (12min 11sec), 14 Dec 2009:

    An activist, an inventor, and a witness to climate change - Cameron Robertson hears three alternative voices at the Copenhagen climate change summit

  • Protestors clash with police in Copenhagen Video (5min 35sec), 13 Dec 2009:

    Police detain hundreds following a day of climate change protests in the Danish capital

1-15 of 20 for Copenhagen climate conference

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Who Killed the Electric Car?

(Cert U)
3 out of 5 3

One more of a raft of documentaries that make you say, "Hmm, if Gore was president ..." Electric cars were on the market in California, where a law requiring 2% of cars emission-free by 1998 gave them a head start. They had the odd celebrity endorsement (Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson among them) and were much loved by the few users. As Gibson puts it, with a neat pun, "The future is controlled by who has the biggest club." Yet despite activists' 24-hour vigil for 27 days to protect the last 78 electric cars in existence, and offering $1.9m to buy them, General Motors destroyed them in 2005. The why and how of a complex and worrying story.

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Series: The Q&A

Eli Roth, film director

Eli Roth, 35, was brought up in Massachusetts, the son of a psychoanalyst father and artist mother. He began shooting Super 8 films at the age of eight. After film school, he worked in TV, film and theatre production. In 1995 he cowrote Cabin Fever with Randy Pearlstein. Six years later they made the film on a shoestring budget of $1.5m - it went on to become the most profitable horror film of 2003. In 2005 he made Hostel, which grossed $80m worldwide, since when he has collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on Grindhouse and made Hostel Part II, out on DVD this week.

  1. Hostel
  2. Production year: 2006
  3. Country: USA
  4. Cert (UK): 18
  5. Runtime: 93 mins
  6. Directors: Eli Roth
  7. Cast: Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Jay Hernandez
  8. More on this film

When were you happiest?

When I'm on set, filming.

What is your greatest fear?

That Bush will get re-elected.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Sacha Baron Cohen - he is fearless.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I get a little too obsessive with work.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Greed and envy. You meet with actors, and they're so excited to get involved in a project, then all they start worrying about is that their trailer's not big enough.

What is your most treasured possession?

David Lynch gave me a crew pin from the Blue Velvet film. It's beautiful.

Where would you like to live?

Rome, Prague or Reykjavik.

What makes you depressed?

The thought that I will die before making all the movies in my head.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My bottom teeth are all messed up.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I need to eliminate 'like' from my vocabulary. I begin sentences with, 'That's seriously like...' I hear myself talking in this Los Angeles high-school student kind of way, and I hate it.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Zach Quinto [Sylar in Heroes].

What is your favourite book?

We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

David Lynch, Nikola Tesla, John Lennon, Monica Vitti, Stanley Kubrick.

What is your fancy dress costume of choice?

A turn-of-the-19-century millionaire, in a top hat and tails.

What do you owe your parents?

Everything. I'll have to pay them back with grandchildren one day.

What does love feel like?

Suddenly you see everything differently.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

I have Spice Up Your Life on my iPod.

What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?

'You are one untalented stand-in.' It was on Meet Joe Black in 1997; I was hired to stand in for one of the actors, but he was taller than me so I had to perch on my tip toes. The director, Martin Brest, said, 'You are one untalented stand-in, you're fired.' I thought he was joking. He was totally serious. I needed a job, so my friends hid me by the air conditioner, turning it on and off. For 18 hours a day.

Which living person do you most despise?

Dick Cheney.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

To the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to see the experiments that Nikola Tesla did.

How do you relax?

I go running until I am completely exhausted and can't move.

What is the worst job you've done?

Turning that air conditioner on and off.

How often do you have sex?

It comes in spurts, so to speak. If I find a suitable companion for sex, I will have sex nonstop. But when I'm shooting a film, I can go months without. I need to find a balance.

What would your super power be?

Controlling when you go to the bathroom. That way I could take long car rides without having to worry.

What is the closest you've come to death?

Climbing with my brothers when I was 18. We got stuck at the top of Mount Washington in one of the worst electrical storms in its history. We had to go through the lightning to get down. Three people in another group died.

What single thing would improve the quality of your life?

A real life partner.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Helping move horror forward.

What keeps you awake at night?

My ideas. I have so many different projects, I hear voices in my head - the characters talking all at once - and I have to write to make them stop.

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Film preview: Club Deluxe: 40 Years Of ICA Cinema, London

ICA Cinema, SW1, Sat 29 to Dec 30

Honouring the ICA's original and ongoing remit of bringing leftfield, outsider and extreme cinema that sidesteps mainstream classification, this special anniversary season handpicks the best, weirdest and most defiantly groundbreaking classics from the last 40 years. Vision, innovation and creativity are key in this delightfully wide-ranging selection - see Helen Mirren's screen debut in Herostratus, an appallingly mesmerising modern twist on a Greek myth, and the first film screened at the ICA. Most of the films here the ICA "broke" for British audiences, including Takeshi Kitano's debut, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin classic Violent Cop, and anime trailblazer Akira. Other highlights among many include Jean-Luc Godard double bill Weekend and Sympathy For The Devil, Don Letts' The Punk Rock Movie paired with 1980s LA punk movie Suburbia, and Catherine Deneuve in gorgeous French fairytale Donkey Skin.

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Kluivert strikes light up Holland

The Dutch sky glowed orange yesterday as the sun shone down on Holland's chances of winning the Henri Delaunay Trophy.

The brightest contribution came from Patrick Kluivert, who produced a ruthless display of finishing to become the first player in any European Championship to score four goals in a game.

Similarly the conclusive scoreline represented the biggest win in the history of the finals. But that was not the only reason that Holland's fourth victory in Euro 2000 was by far their most impressive.

A knife through butter was the only analogy one could use to describe the way they cut open the Yugoslavia defence, passing the ball around at will and carving out chance after chance.

It was a further step in their development on the road to possible overall victory here next Sunday. However, Holland need to be wary of using this one-sided victory as evidence for brushing aside Italy in Thursday's semi-final. The only similarity between the opponents will be their blue shirts.

"We've always stood beside each other as a team and paid attention to detail to try and improve ourselves," said the Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard. "The boys have made it a wonderful evening and I can only be proud of them."

While the Orange hordes basked in their emphatic victory, the ease with which the Dutch players were able to find their team-mates with the ball and the ease with which those in possession were able to shrug off their markers offered a stark condemnation of the inability of Yugoslavia to defend both individually or as a unit.

Their only success of the night was that, for the first time in this tournament, they did not have a man sent off.

"We made a big tactical mistake," admitted the crest-fallen Yugoslav coach Vujadin Boskov, who tipped the host nation to go on and win the tournament.

"We didn't play three defensive players and five midfielders in the beginning. We played 4-4-2 and it was our mistake.

"But Holland have the advantage of playing at home in front of 60,000 spectators in their next game. I think it is a big advantage to have over the other countries and it was our great problem tonight."

It was obvious from the first minute that Yugoslavia were in for an extremely tough evening when Marc Overmars set up his Arsenal team-mate Dennis Bergkamp for a shot on goal. It was blocked but the pattern of Dutch infiltration was established.

Yugoslavia were immediately back-pedalling, defending deep and conceding large chunks of possession, hoping no doubt that their luck would hold out long enough at the back for them to create something up front.

That was a thin game-plan but, for a while at least, the first part worked. When Bergkamp turned past Nisa Saveljic, his curled shot was not quite heading for the top corner and Ivica Kralj was able to push the ball away.

Minutes later Bergkamp skipped past the same beleaguered defender and Kralj was again able to deny the Dutchman. The Orange tide persisted and, soon after, Bergkamp played Edgar Davids into the area with only the goalkeeper to beat. But the busy midfielder was for once lost for words as he contrived to blast the ball over the bar.

At the other end, though, fortune refused to follow the Yugoslav script. On 16 minutes Savo Milosevic fashioned his team's best opening of the game, sprinting past a defender before pulling the ball back to Predrag Mijatovic in front of goal, but the striker hit his shot too close to Edwin van der Sar.

When chances are rare they need to be taken. For Holland they were abundant and a goal soon arrived.

On 24 minutes Bergkamp picked up the ball wide on the left and chipped in a ball so perfectly flighted that it sailed over Sinisa Mihajlovic and dropped into the path of the unmarked Kluivert. The Barcelona striker took one touch to control the ball and another to dispatch it over the line.

Boudewijn Zenden and Arthur Numan went close to extending the Dutch lead before Kluivert added his second on 38 minutes. It was a carbon copy of the first goal, Zenden this time the supplier, the Yugoslav defence once again marking space.

The third goal arrived six minutes into the second half after a couple of sighters from Bergkamp and Overmars. Bosvelt's right-wing cross to the near post appeared to be converted by Kluivert and was credited as such by the referee. However, the striker later admitted a defender did get the last touch.

In their opening game Yugoslavia had recovered from an identical 3-0 deficit. But Holland are no Slovenia and the Balkan side knew that there was no way back. The floodgates opened.

Zenden once again fed Kluivert, this time from near the dead-ball line, and the striker deftly side-footed the ball past a dazed Kralj into the roof of the net.

Holland were creating chances at will. The substitute Roy Makaay and Philip Cocu both went close before Bergkamp set up Overmars. The little winger was given time and space to tee up a 20-yard shot which the diving Kralj could only help into the net.

On 90 minutes Overmars scored his second, pouncing on a Cocu shot which cannoned off the post. Minutes later Yugoslavia scored a consolation goal as Mijatovic hit the woodwork and Milosevic stroked the ball into an unguarded net.

But the look on his face was less of joy, more of embarrassment.

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Samba sets up for the last dance

What became of a teenage sensation?
  • The Observer,

He was supposed to be the spearhead to be the spearhead of England's assault on the 2006 World Cup. Such was the hyperbole surrounding 14-year-old Cherno Samba that during one weekend four years ago he knocked all the established Premiership stars off the back pages. The tabloid frenzy around the wunderkind from Peckham was matched only by that of agents looking to get a slice of the most sought-after English talent of his generation.

And after learning of his prolific scoring exploits, including 132 goals in 32 games when he was just 13, the Premiership's big guns homed in on the England Schoolboys' forward, with Liverpool showing the biggest interest.

Five years on, and after the 'big move' never materialised, Cherno finds himself starting again. Having been released by Millwall in the summer, without a first-team appearance to his name, the 19-year-old is three months into a four-year 'development contract' with Cadiz, who are top of the Spanish second division.

For both the boy and his family, who had arrived in Britain from Gambia in the early 1990s, the experience has been a chastening one. Speaking at the family's modest south London flat, Cherno's father, Al-Hajie, shakes his head when he thinks about what his son has been through.

'It was when Cherno got called up to England when he was 13 that all the newspapers first started to get in touch. I had to change my phone number twice because of it. I didn't want everyone to have access like that.

'Agents started giving Cherno cards and asking him to tell me to contact them to talk about representing him. One of them offered me £25,000 to look after my son. I found it strange. I thought I should be paying them to look after my son.' For Cherno, then just a regular student at the local comprehensive school, it was hard not to react to the attention.

'There were many agents trying to get me. They were ringing my school and turning up at my house. They tried to bribe me by offering me gifts and money. I was the most wanted kid in England at 14 and I became arrogant with it. I thought, "I've made it, I'm the best player in the world, and no one can talk to me",' he says, recalling the heady days.

Al-Hajie was working as a chef and admits thoughts of getting his hands on the money began eating away at him.

'I was earning £1,000 a month and I must admit the offers of £10,000 and £25,000 to represent Cherno were tempting. But in the end I thought that wouldn't be to Cherno's advantage. I said to myself it's harram [forbidden in Islam] to take a bribe. I felt if I took the money I would be betraying my son. So we chose somebody we could trust.'

That man was Harry Gebber, a football coach turned agent, who had known Cherno since he was nine. Gebber got Cherno and other players from Mottingham FC to go to train with Millwall when they gave him a job on their coaching staff. But when it came to signing academy forms at 14 the Sambas felt it was time to move on. After all, as Al-Hajie recalls: 'My son was going to be a star.'

Though reluctant to agree, Millwall allowed Cherno to tour prospective suitors, saying they would demand compensation.

Having spoken to, and visited a number of clubs, Cherno chose Liverpool because 'they showed they wanted me the most'. After a week-long trial, Cherno was back at school when he got a call on his mobile. It was Michael Owen.

'When Owen called it was a thrill. I was on a bus coming from school and he phoned me in front of all my friends. He said I should sign for Liverpool because it's a great club and it would be good to play alongside me. My mates couldn't believe it. They were phoning Harry [Gebber] to ask him if it was true.'

The move never materialised. Millwall say they were prepared to let the player go, but it was the player's representatives that stymied the move. Sports lawyer Mel Stein, who had been chosen by Gebber to broker an agreement, said it was Millwall's reluctance to name a price that meant Cherno's move was doomed.

'Millwall didn't come up with an asking price,' says Stein. 'It could have been anything at a tribunal. Clubs didn't want to be caught out. Somebody could have had a nasty surprise if they let it go to tribunal without having an idea of what Millwall wanted.'

Some clubs felt that tribunals had set fees far too high, so Liverpool pulled out. Samba stayed and Millwall got what they wanted, but at a price. For the first time, the club promised to award a 14-year-old academy player a guaranteed two-year contract when he turned 17.

'We wanted the boy to stay. Those were his demands when he signed an academy contract with the club and they were completely against our policy,' says Nicky Milo, youth academy director at Millwall. A return to the young Lions was not what Cherno thought would happen. After all he was the future 'golden boy'. The meteoric rise first floundered and then went into reverse.

Cherno admits he had lost his appetite for the game.

'I felt tortured. My football went out of the window. Whether you are 10, 15 or 38, when a move to big club falls through, you get low. I started to question myself and there were times I tried to quit football. At 14 I played for the under-17s. I was still playing for the under-17s when I was 17, which means I didn't improve my football. '

Milo questions Cherno's desire. 'He may have wasted his first two years with the club. People had overtaken him in terms of physique, development and commitment. He's a very nice and approachable boy, but did he genuinely give it his best shot or did he leave it a bit late? It wasn't all his fault. He was too young for it all to be his fault. Maybe we are all to blame a little.'

The one constant throughout Cherno's career has been his involvement with England's various squads. He has represented every team from the under-14s to the current under-20 side, who he played for on Tuesday night against Russia at The Valley. He was substituted 13 minutes before the end having missed a pair of good opportunities.

For Gebber, the man who has coached and represented Cherno for the past decade, there is no place for recriminations.

'Cherno came in the public light too early and as a young boy everything got too much for him. I feel his football wasn't developing because he felt he had made it. I didn't think I did anything that I shouldn't have done. I was just there to support him for whatever he wanted and I was there for the boy. Everybody can pass the buck, but the bottom line falls with him. If he was good enough clubs would have taken him,' says Gebber.

Millwall's decision to release Cherno in the summer, as soon as his contract was up, passed without fanfare. And attempts to get a deal with Coventry, West Bromwich Albion and Leeds all failed. But just when it looked as though Cherno Samba's career as a footballer was finished at 19, salvation came from Cadiz, although he has not yet broken into the first team.

Looking back on his time in the spotlight, Cherno says: 'I'm glad everything happened to me when I was young. I had to grow up fast. But I've learned from that. It made me a stronger and better person and realise that you can be at the top one minute and the next minute you can be the lowest person on earth. Now I know to be humble, no matter how good you are you have to work for things.'

Despite the setbacks, ambition still burns bright for the Peckham boy. With his confidence returned, he says: 'I don't care what anybody says, I have got the talent. I will work hard and I will make it.'

Cherno: The Headlines

Fergie in £2m chase for ace kid Samba, 14!

MARCH 2000

Golden Boy: Houllier Bids £1.5m for 15-year-old

Millwall Slam Kid Snatchers: Paphitis Blasts Liverpool

The Boy Aged 15 with a Price Tag of £1.5m: Soccer Clubs Clamour to Sign a New Star (But he's Got to Take his GCSEs First)

APRIL 2000

The Only Way is up for Samba

Samba Opts for Arsenal

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Wayne Rooney's hot streak leaves West Ham United out in the cold

Wayne Rooney scores his first against West Ham
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney heads his first goal past the diving West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green. Photograph: Neal Simpson/Empics Sport

Sooner or later Wayne Rooney is going to exhaust the pot of superlatives. The Manchester United striker has now scored 27 times this season after another night in which he demonstrated the ruthlessness in front of goal that has not always been evident throughout his career.

Two headed chances, two goals. West Ham's defence were as helpless as Milan's had been at San Siro a week earlier and, in the process, Sir Alex Ferguson's team shook the 3-1 defeat to Everton out of their system and moved back within a point of Chelsea at the top, albeit having played a game more. Rio Ferdinand's late withdrawal with a recurrence of his back problems on the night Nemanja Vidic, fit again, returned to the team, is a concern, as is an injury for the returning Anderson.

Otherwise this was a satisfying, business-like win for the champions, incorporating a substitute's goal for Michael Owen two minutes after being introduced and more evidence that Rooney is surpassing Didier Drogba as the irresistible choice for player of the year.

The hardest part for Ferguson must be finding new ways to describe his leading scorer but he summed it up in his programme notes when he wrote "the hallmark of a truly great player is the ability to grab a game by the scruff of the neck". Even ignoring Rooney's goals, this was another demonstration of a player wanting to makes things happen. He was a constant menace, always looking for the ball, even having the audacityat one stage to clip the ball in the air and try a dipping volley from 30 yards. The ball landed on the roof of the net and Old Trafford reverberated to the collective sigh of knowing how close it was to witnessing something truly special.

What cannot be disputed is that this is the most prolific form Rooney has shown since he burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old, the "assassin-faced baby", at Everton. Eight years on, he is more of a penalty-box player, sacrificing some of the roaming instincts that have driven Ferguson to distraction at times. His positioning has improved, his appreciation of where the ball might come. His repertoire now takes in a newly developed aerial threat and this is why Ferguson spoke of him becoming the "complete player" and "ready to join the distinguished band of Manchester United legends".

The first goal came 38 minutes into a first half in which the first flutters of snow added to the kaleidoscope of colours on another night of green and gold anti-Glazer protests. As the ball was worked upfield, starting with Nemanja Vidic in defence through to Park Ji-sung in midfield, Rooney was hanging on the line of West Ham's defence. Park picked out Dimitar Berbatov on the left, and Berbatov switched play with a cross-field ball to Antonio Valencia on the opposite flank.

The pass was slightly overhit and most footballers would have been content just to control the ball. Valencia, though, had the confidence to volley it straight across the penalty area to where Rooney was loitering with intent. It was a sublime piece of technique and vision and it would have been almost impudent for Rooney, with a stooping header, to miss.

Valencia's role cannot be overstated for both goals. It was another of his inviting crosses from which Rooney, again unchallenged, headed in the second 10 minutes after the interval. It used to be said of Rooney that heading was one his weaknesses. Not, however, on the evidence of the last week. "Everything he touches is a goal," Gianfranco Zola, West Ham's manager, reflected wistfully.

Ferguson had made five changes from the side that lost to Everton. This was Ben Foster's first appearance since the end of November and Anderson was also brought back only to be forced off after 19 minutes. The Brazilian made his way to the tunnel with such a pronounced limp it was difficult to imagine him playing any part in the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa on Sunday.

West Ham acquitted themselves well in the first half and Foster, described as "a bit anxious" by Ferguson, came a couple of inches away from one of his horror moments when he dropped Alessandro Diamanti's deflected shot on to his goalline as it fell from the sky. But there was a clear imbalance of talent and the home side will also reflect on Park striking the crossbar and the visiting goalkeeper, Robert Green, making a string of fine saves.

Typically, Rooney did not look too pleased when Ferguson brought him off with 12 minutes to go. Owen replaced Berbatov at the same time and quickly set about reminding Old Trafford that he too still knows a thing or two about finishing.

Paul Scholes, who controlled midfield alongside Darron Gibson, provided the killer pass and Owen, inside the penalty area, curled his shot in off the post.

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Uefa approves financial fair play rules for European clubs

Clubs must break even in order to play in Europe
Manchester City under threat of falling foul of new ruling
Manchester United believe they would pass Uefa's new financial rule depite the hugh debts
Manchester United believe they would pass Uefa's new financial rules despite the huge debts put on the club by the Glazers. Photograph: Jon Super

Uefa has approved plans to force clubs in European competition to spend only what they earn. The financial fair play rules will require clubs to break even over a rolling three-year period if they want to play in the Champions League or Europa League.

"We have worked on the financial fair play concept hand-in-hand with the clubs, as our intention is not to punish them but to protect them," said Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, after its executive committee had approved the rules at a meeting in Nyon, Switzerland. "The philosophy is that you cannot spend more money than you generate.

"This approval is the start of an important journey for European football's club finances as we begin to put stability and economic common sense back into football. I thank all the stakeholders who have supported this along the way."

There will be some leeway granted for the six years after 2012 but some Premier League clubs, notably Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa, could still fall foul of the rule unless they change their spending habits.

Manchester United have carried out a 'dummy test' and believe they would pass the rules despite the handicap of paying out £45m to service their debts every year. Arsenal and Tottenham would pass the test comfortably, while Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers would probably do so.

"We support the financial fair play measures. We are confident that we pass them and that we will continue to do so," said a United spokesman.

It is understood that clubs must not return losses of more then €45m (£38m) for the 2012-15 period. After 2015 clubs are given a leeway of €30m (£26m) for three-year losses after which the figure will be reduced still further.

Clubs that breach the rules will not be granted a Uefa club licence to take part in European competitions.


text:
Manchester clubs kept apart in draw but United may meet Chelsea

• Giant-killers Blackburn travel to Millwall
• Winners of Oldham v Everton replay will be at home to Wigan
  • The Guardian,
FA Cup trophy
The FA Cup trophy. Photograph: Gareth Copley - The Fa/The FA via Getty Images

The two Manchester sides, first and second in the Premier League, were kept apart in the draw for the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. But should United defeat Reading on Monday night and Chelsea win their rescheduled fifth-round game at Middlesbrough on 27 February, the two will meet in the tie of the round.

Blackburn have been rewarded for their win at Arsenal with a trip to Millwall while Barnsley, the other non-Premier League side definitely through to the last eight, face a daunting visit to Manchester City, winners of the trophy in 2011. The winners of the Goodison Park replay between Everton and Oldham Athletic will play at home to Wigan Athletic.

The draw in full:

Oldham Athletic/Everton v Wigan Athletic

Manchester City v Barnsley

Manchester United/Reading v Middlesbrough/Chelsea

Millwall v Blackburn Rovers

Matches to be played the weekend of 9/10 March

Odds to win FA Cup Manchester City 13-8, Manchester United 5-2, Everton 9-2, Chelsea 5-1, Wigan 25-1, Blackburn 40-1, Millwall 50-1, Reading 100-1, Barnsley 200-1, Middlesbrough, 250-1, Oldham 500-1

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talking sport 620

Champions League

Milan no longer able to mask the decline of Italian clubs' fortunes

Milan's heavy defeat at United suggested Serie A's weakness, though Internazionale will dispute that against Chelsea
Ronaldinho reacts in despair as Milan fall to Manchester United. Photograph: Neal Simpson/Empics Sport

Milan had come to fail. Despondency was close to the surface and bound to overwhelm the side as soon as Manchester United scored. The visitors were diligent enough, but they could not fend off a weariness of soul and body in the 4‑0 loss. Too much has rested on them for too long.

In the past six seasons Milan have won the European Cup, lost a final, gone out in the semi-finals and featured in the last 16. They have done everything feasible to shore up the standing of Italian football. There are too many veterans in Leonardo's squad, but even hyperactive youths would have buckled under that workload.

The situation is strange since Serie A once understood the nature of modern football when other countries, including England, had a provincial attitude. The cosmopolitan outlook is long‑established in Italy. When Marco van Basten was followed to San Siro in the late 80s by Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, elder Milan fans had the excuse to reminisce about "Gre-No-Li", the Swedish trio of Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm who had such impact three decades before.

Italy has been so eclectic in its football tastes that the Argentinian-born Julio Libonatti was top scorer as long ago as 1928. Torino had reached across the Atlantic to pluck him from Newell's Old Boys. At present Serie A has mislaid its knack for securing outstanding players at the very peak of their powers. With Italy as World Cup-holders the domestic talent is undeniable, but some are on the wane. Alessandro Nesta played shakily against United in the first leg and the defender was not fit to take part in the return.

It would still be nonsensical to claim that all Italian clubs are in decline. Fiorentina might well have gone through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League had they not seen an invalid goal outrageously allowed in the away leg of a hard-fought tie with Bayern Munich. Their coach Cesare Prandelli has the status to be considered a possible replacement for Manuel Pellegrini, who is in grave danger following the vote of confidence at Real Madrid.

Elsewhere in Italy Internazionale are improving, with a broader range to their play now that José Mourinho has employed the funds raised by selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic to bring in Wesley Sneijder and others. The 2-1 defeat of Chelsea was surely the match of the season to date and it is far from impossible that the Premier League club will be eliminated when Mourinho comes back to his old club next week.

Serie A is very far from extinction, but it does have a range of difficulties. Some are found on a highly individual level. Now that he is prime minister of the country Silvio Berlusconi seems like a man who can always find a moment to interfere in team selection, but is far too busy actually to lead Milan. A group left to grow old together personifies perfectly the lack of strategy.

The strength leaks out of Serie A in other ways as well. Even if Italian fans were never naive in the first-place, the match-fixing scandals have been demoralising. Any country can run into trouble with hooliganism, but it is still unsettling to hear of Juventus fans setting fire to seats inside the Stadio Olimpico

The club moved out of the charmless Stadio delle Alpi in 2006 but intend to build a new ground on that site. Its capacity would be a fairly modest 41,000. That reflects the shrinkage in Serie A. While the Premier League has exploited the advantage of the widely understood English language to market its games globally, the Italians have not been able to turn their own matches into international television events.

Income is affected, too, by ticket prices that are low by comparison with those endured here. It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that Serie A will be affected by a lack of glamour. With Kaká gone to Real Madrid, Milan must do what they can to make Ronaldinho seem charismatic once more, even if his main ambition is somehow to persuade Dunga that he has reformed sufficiently to be worth a place in Brazil's plans. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, a more recent signing, has been an expensive source of dismay.

These are awkward days and Serie A badly needs club owners of imagination and enterprise. Nonetheless, Chelsea will have to take care that Mourinho does not single-handedly rehabilitate Italian club football next week.

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Football match-fixing is no surprise – what we need now are solutions

Europol's match-fixing investigation has confirmed the extent of the problem, and it could be just the tip of the iceberg
Liverpool v Debrecen, UEFA Champions League 2009
Liverpool's UEFA Champions League home group game with Debrecen in the 2009 has come under scrutiny from Europol. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Europol's match-fixing revelations was how many people were astonished. It was as if Robert Hoyzer, Raj Perumal and the other grubby footballing perverters and inverters had not existed, and words such as Scommessopoli had never become shorthand for scandal.

The evidence has been there for more than a decade, from Brazil, Greece, Finland, Turkey, Italy, Germany and elsewhere. But we were like patients under anesthesia; drowsily comfortable in our own teams and dreams.

In 2011 a court in Bochum convicted a gang of manipulating more than 300 matches in 12 European countries and Canada. The same year Tampere United were indefinitely suspended from the Finnish league after being unable to explain why they took €300,000 from a company in Singapore. Meanwhile Wikileaks revealed that the US embassy in Sofia warned: "Today nearly all teams [in Bulgaria] are owned or connected to organised crime … allegations of illegal gambling and match-fixing plague the league."

Reports from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Fifpro and the EU also shone flashlights, but few noticed. And then Europol crossed a few boxes, added a few international games, and called house – and the world went bonkers.

But as Rick Parry, the former Liverpool chief executive who chaired the DCMS's highly regarded report on sports betting and corruption told me: "There was little new in there. It seemed like grandstanding from Europol."

Still, at least the issue is lodged in people's brains. But, to plunge into middle-management-speak, what we need now are solutions not problems.

Let's start with the obvious: match-fixing is complex to investigate and difficult to prove. A player deliberately underperforming, or being in contact with a criminal, is not enough. There needs to be irrefutable evidence and ideally a paper trail – not easy when Asian bookmakers, where most bets are placed, are barely regulated.

Globalisation has not helped either. As David Forrest, an economist at the University of Salford points out, it has given crooks plenty of targets to exploit. "Lots of clubs are financially shaky and treat their players poorly," he says. "When players are paid late it creates resentment and criminals take advantage."

Last year Fifpro interviewed 3,357 professional players in eastern Europe and found 41% had not received their salaries on time, while 12% said they had been asked to manipulate a match – a figure that rose sharply for those paid late. The sharks smell desperation.

Players and referees need face-to-face discussions about what is acceptable and to be warned about the dangers of being groomed, and later exploited. There also need to be discreet pathways for illegal approaches to be reported.

Education needs be reinforced with legislation. Tougher rules to ensure clubs are financially sound and pay their players would help. As would a universal fit-and-proper person test, strong enough to deter gangsters from taking over near-bankrupt clubs and using them for money laundering or fixing matches, which has, incredibly, happened in Belgium and Finland.

Doing that is hard enough but getting sporting authorities, police, governments and bookmakers to join in common purpose is even more important. And, sadly, very difficult. It remains the case that Dan Tan Seet Eng, who has been accused of match-fixing in several countries, is still free in Singapore despite an Italian arrest warrant.

It makes you pine for the equivalent of a World Anti-Doping Agency for match-fixing, to bash heads and set standards. But Parry suggests it will never fly, as sporting authorities are suspicious of any encroachment on their territory. Instead he calls for a transnational body to act as a police force, collating information and passing it on.

That makes sense. As does sports creating the right culture themselves. Parry says: "It isn't always about years of painstaking evidence. A large part is about making it hard for stings to happen. The British Horseracing Authority has the best integrity unit of all. If they gather intelligence prior to a race they send a security officer to a jockey to say: we are watching you. That's a big disincentive for criminals."

It sounds counterintuitive, but legalising betting in China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia – which feeds so much match-fixing – would also help. If the history of 1960s Britain is any guide, the street bookies would dwindle and it would be easier to follow the money. But it remains a pipe dream.

On Saturday Sepp Blatter insisted that match-fixing affects a tiny percentage of games. But we have seen how interest in leagues across Asia, including China, has dwindled because of the problem.

It could yet happen here. Sportradar, which monitors betting markets for Uefa among others, fears up to 1% of matches are fixed every week in Europe – that's 10 a week. As Forrest points out: "It's also worrying that many cases, such as the Bochum investigation, which began by looking at prostitution, come to light only by accident. It adds to the fear that this is the tip of the iceberg."

That should make us all pause. Match-fixing could be even bigger than we think. And we may yet be the parents who found their child was smoking marijuana, when they had already moved on to crack cocaine.


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Archive (16-22 of 22)

  • 25 Oct 2005:

    The assistant referee who wrongly adjudged West Ham had scored a second goal against Middlesbrough has apologised to Boro manager, Steve McClaren.

  • 19 Jul 2005:

    A row of deals for backroom staff is delaying the signing of Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren's new contract.

  • 1 Mar 2004:

    Bolton 1 -2 Middlesbrough Middlesbrough beat Bolton in a frenzied final to win the first trophy in the club's 128 year-history.

  • 10 Nov 2003:

    Steve McClaren fosters a "culture of openness"' at Middlesbrough, where players are encouraged to air grievances. Frequent team meetings headed by Bill Beswick, the club psychologist, are designed to enable individuals to "confront issues" so, suitably emboldened, Juninho told his manager precisely what he thought of him.

  • 23 Mar 2003:

    March 23: Charlton take the lead. Steve McClaren gets angry. Middlesbrough equalise. The end.

  • 3 Dec 2001:

    The talk was of "siege mentality" and an adrenalin-pumped desire to prove the critics wrong. If Steve McClaren had not been so willing to talk, he would have been a dead ringer for his old gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson.

  • 18 Sep 2001:

    Suddenly Middlesbrough are in mid-table. Last night's victory, their second in three days, has lifted Steve McClaren's struggling side eight places and only goal difference is keeping them behind Liverpool.

16-22 of 22 for Steve McClaren + Middlesbrough

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