Ahsan Ali Syed, the man with a Midas touch who rode into Blackburn as their saviour until several financial irregularities exposed by the BBC forced him out of contention is back in the news.

The mug happy Indian businessman is now the focus of increasing media scrutiny over a global scam involving millions of dollars.

Inside Minnesota Soccer reports USSF narrowly approved a one-year provisional sanctioning for the new North American Soccer League as a Division II outfit for 2011, with a set of standards they'll have to meet to be fully sanctioned for 2012.

Details should be in an official announcement later today, but presumably the standards include "hire your second employee.

Liverpool's former chairman Sir Martin Broughton, the club's new owners New England Sports Ventures and the Royal Bank of Scotland all did battle with the club's former owner, Tom Hicks, at the high court on Wednesday.
Hicks wants to take his complaint against the enforced sale of the Premier League club, which he claims cost him £140m, through the United States courts.