England Soccer News

LONDON (AP) _ Benjani Mwaruwari scored a hat trick on Saturday to lead Portsmouth to a 7-4 win over Reading in the highest scoring match in the Premier League's 15-year history. Arsenal won 1-0 at West Ham to keep the lead of the standings from defending champion Manchester United, which won 1-0 at Birmingham. At Fratton Park, Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann made a string of saves but was still beaten seven times. Mwaruwari scored twice to put Portsmouth ...

LONDON (AP) _ Arsenal's move to a bigger stadium has paid off, with turnover increasing by almost 50 per cent to a club record 200.8 million pounds (C$406.6 million) and giving manager Arsene Wenger a healthy transfer budget. Arsenal Holdings PLC said Monday its record results, for the year ending May 31, came as a result of the move to the 60,400-capacity Emirates Stadium in July 2006. The Gunners had played at the 38,500-seat Highbury Stadium for the ...

PARIS (AP) _ Avram Grant has only just settled into the Chelsea hot seat vacated by Jose Mourinho. He must wonder how long he'll be there. The former Israel coach watched the Blues lose his first game in charge _ 2-0 to rival Manchester United _ to slide to sixth in the Premier League. During Sunday's game at Old Trafford, Grant heard the Chelsea fans chant the names of Mourinho and his assistant, Steve Clarke, who was sitting ...

LONDON (AP) _ Arsenal can make its good start to the season even better when it enters the Carling Cup against Newcastle on Tuesday. The Gunners are top of the Premier League, have tied manager Arsene Wenger to a new contract and have been confirmed as England's most profitable club. They now enter a competition in which they were runners-up last season. In one of eight matches Tuesday, Arsenal meets a Newcastle side enjoying its best start ...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) _ Chelsea has upset Michael Ballack and German national team officials again for delaying permission for the midfielder to take part in a publicity spot for Germany's main sponsor. Ballack and rest of the team were scheduled to take part at the filming of an advertising spot for Adidas on Monday. But Chelsea, Ballack's team, withheld its permission until late Sunday and Ballack by then had returned to London. ``That's not how you treat a ...

LONDON (AP) _ Chelsea has left Germany captain Michael Ballack off its squad for the group stage of the Champions League. Ballack was linked with a transfer, most notably to Real Madrid, during the off-season but Chelsea said it omitted the midfielder because the ankle injury that has prevented him from playing this season may rule him out of the majority of the club's six group matches. However, Germany manager Joachim Loew has said he hopes Ballack will ...

LONDON (AP) _ West Ham is in talks with Inter Milan over a loan deal for Brazil striker Adriano. ``The possible deal is in its early stages and money has not yet been discussed,'' a West Ham statement said late Tuesday. ``The club are investigating the possibility of a loan deal at this stage.'' Inter wants Adriano to leave the club, preferably for a temporary period, after disciplinary problems and a loss of form last season. It ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ David Beckham attracts Hollywood stars the same way he draws defenders on the soccer field. In large numbers. A glittery array of actors and entertainment world luminaries turned out Sunday for what was billed as an official welcome-to-Los Angeles party for the international soccer icon and his wife, Victoria Beckham. With Tom Cruise and Will Smith playing co-hosts for the invitation-only bash at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary gallery, the guest list ...

MANCHESTER, England (AP) _ Manchester United wants world soccer's governing body to help untangle the contractual issues that are delaying its bid to sign Carlos Tevez. United wants to sign the Argentina striker from West Ham, but the deal has been stalled by debate over who owns Tevez's contract. Representatives from Manchester United have been in discussions with the Premier League and West Ham this week over the transfer, but with no resolution. Manchester United chief executive David ...

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ Real Madrid is lining up Chelsea winger Arjen Robben as its next transfer target. The Spanish champions said Wednesday that any deal to bring Robben to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium is unlikely to go ahead before next week at the earliest. ``It is a negotiation which will take place in the coming days or weeks and if the situation is favourable, by which I mean financially, I think that he is a player ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The Los Angeles Galaxy's website has been counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until superstar David Beckham joins the Major League Soccer team. But does anyone besides hard-core soccer fans, admirers of the dashing and fashionable Englishman or paparazzi care in a country where interest in the sport known overseas as football has never registered more than a blip? ``I'm not quite sure why, but Americans think soccer's boring,'' said Doug Wood, ...

NEW YORK (AP) _ It's already time to brand it like Beckham. Adidas is launching an advertising campaign this week featuring English soccer star David Beckham and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush swapping sports during practice in ``Futbol vs. Football.'' ``There's very few people whose names transcend their own sports. People know the name of David Beckham, whether they follow soccer or not,'' said Stephen Pierpoint, vice president of brand marketing for Adidas America. After helping Real ...

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello admits he was wrong to drop David Beckham earlier this season. Capello benched Beckham in January, questioning his motivation, after the England star signed a five-year deal to join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. But, since being reinstated by Capello, Beckham has played a major role in Madrid's charge toward a possible 30th Spanish league title. ``The truth is with him we were all wrong,'' ...

LONDON (AP) _ Midfielder Steve Sidwell will join Chelsea on July 1 when his contract with Reading expires. Sidwell turned down a new contract with Reading despite helping the club finish eighth in its first ever Premier League season. Chelsea said he passed a medical exam Tuesday. The Blues need backup in midfield this season as several players will be taking part in the Jan. 20-Feb. 10 African Cup of Nations _ notably Ghana's Michael Essien and ...

WOLVERHAMPTON, England (AP) _ Wolverhampton owner Jack Hayward sold the League Championship club Monday to Liverpool businessman Steve Morgan. Hayward said he agreed to sell all of his shares to Morgan for 10 pounds (C$21.34), providing he invests 30 million pounds (C$64 million) in Wolves. ``Jack is making this gift for the benefit of the club and in order to secure the future of the club on a long-term basis,'' Wolves said in a statement on its website. ``It ...

LONDON (AP) _ Michael Owen was picked for an England squad on Thursday for the first time since badly injuring his right knee at last year's World Cup. The 27-year-old Newcastle striker was named in an experienced 20-man squad to play Albania on May 25 at Burnley in an unofficial B match. Owen has played in Newcastle's last two Premier League games after recovering from the ligament rupture he sustained ...

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ FC Barcelona is reportedly keen to sign Arsenal striker Thierry Henry at the end of the season. Barcelona president Joan Laporta was quoted by Catalunya Radio this week as saying he was ``finalizing the signing'' of the France forward. Meanwhile, sports daily Mundo Deportivo said Thursday that Barcelona has yet to make a firm bid for Henry but is considering offering him a lucrative three-year contract. ...

LONDON (AP) _ The last time Manchester United went more than three seasons without an English championship title, the Premier League hadn't even started. United manager Alex Ferguson can avoid that happening again on Sunday. If United beats Manchester City on Saturday (Rogers Sportsnet, 7:30 a.m. ET), and defending champion Chelsea fails to win at Arsenal on Sunday (Fox Sports World Canada, 11 a.m. ET), the title will be on ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) _ Greece's police chief urged English soccer fans not to travel to Athens for the Champions League final on May 23 unless they have a ticket. About 20,000 officers will be deployed from greater Athens and other cities for the match in security measures similar to those used for the 2004 Olympics. One English team is guaranteed to play the final. In the semifinals, Liverpool faces Chelsea ...

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ Jose Mourinho intends to remain as Chelsea manager, despite reports he has been targeted by Spanish club Real Madrid. Mourinho, who is under contract until 2010, said he had ``done nothing'' to encourage speculation that he could replace Fabio Capello at Madrid at the end of the season. ``I don't want my name linked with Madrid or with any other club because I want to stay ...

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) _ Work on Liverpool soccer club's new stadium will start in July after the local council gave final approval for the project Monday. Liverpool's new owners, American businessmen George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks, will bankroll the new venue in Stanley Park, close to the 45,000-seat Anfield ground where the Reds have been since 1892. ``Tenders for the refurbishment of Stanley Park will go out in April ...

LONDON (AP) _ World Cup champion Italy could be in serious jeopardy of missing out on next year's European Championship if it fails to beat Scotland on Wednesday. And England coach Steve McClaren will likely be looking for a new job if his team doesn't get a big win at Andorra. Twenty more Euro 2008 qualifying games are scheduled for Wednesday, with Group B looking most interesting as qualifying nears ...

BRISTOL, England (AP) _ David Beckham has launched a ``School Zone'' website to improve students' soccer skills and educational achievements. The Real Madrid midfielder unveiled his free coaching guide, www.thedavidbeckhamacademy.co.uk during a visit Monday to the City Academy School in Bristol, southwest England. ``I have seen firsthand how boys and girls respond to the coaches at the academy,'' the former England captain said. ``I am extremely proud of the work ...

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) _ Liverpool has linked up with a junior league in New York to promote the club and boost coaching in the United States. The record 18-time English champion announced the affiliation with Long Island Junior Soccer League, which has more than 70,000 participants, on Thursday. Although Liverpool's rival Arsenal formed a partnership with Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids in February, Liverpool is the first Premier League club ...

People will read who's headed for Hollywood and assume they've seen this movie before. Not ``Bend It Like Beckham,'' of course, but the movie in which an aging soccer star relocates to America and tries to help the game take flight. Just because that one ended badly, all the soccer-haters want to believe this one will, too. Remember: 31-year-old David Beckham barely was born when the central events depicted in ...

David Beckham alone won't transform soccer in the United States. It will take an influx of other European stars to make a real impact. That's the view of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, one of the most successful coaches in the English Premier League. Beckham agreed to the biggest deal in soccer history Thursday and will join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer after his current contract with Spanish ...

Alex Ferguson has named five ``world class'' players he coached during his 20 years at Manchester United and David Beckham wasn't among them. Asked for the list for a club history published this week, Ferguson came up with goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, winger Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane. While he added that current winger Cristiano Ronaldo has the potential to join the list and that Paul Scholes ...

Alan Curbishley is interested in replacing Alan Pardew as West Ham's manager. A day after West Ham fired Pardew, Curbishley, who had a successful 15 years as coach at Charlton, said on Tuesday he would listen to whatever the east London club had to offer. ``West Ham want to talk to me and I would love to know what they have to say,'' Curbishley wrote in his column in the ...

Milan Baros scored his first Aston Villa goal in eight months and Martin O'Neill's team captured a 2-2 draw at Sheffield United on Monday to move up to eighth place in the English Premier League. It was Villa's 10th draw in 17 league games while the point enabled Neil Warnock's United to move one place away from the relegation zone to 16th. Villa went ahead in the second minute when ...

Chelsea dropped two points at home Sunday, needing an 84th-minute tying goal from Michael Essien to earn a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League. Mathieu Flamini put Arsenal ahead in the 78th, scoring after receiving a pass from Alexander Hleb. Essien then tied it with an incredible long-range shot that went in off the inside of the post at Stamford Bridge. Both Essien and Frank Lampard nearly gave Chelsea the win in injury time. Essien hit ...