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UEFA yesterday revealed more information about investigations into over 200 individuals alleged to have fixed matches in nine different countries with a press conference. This revealed that the vast majority under suspicion are domestic matches, with the German authorities having requested information from UEFA's Betting Fraud Detection System in a number of cases, making 17 arrests yesterday.

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He did it, we all know he did it, some think it was normal, some think it was the devil's work, and Ireland want a replay even though FIFA have already ruled it out.

This brings us, of course, to the tricky question of justice in football.

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There is an excellent debate going on at the pages of A More Splendid Life about the future of soccer journalism (or really, the future of journalism in general), with his post yesterday on the impending doom for us all as the "so-called "newspaper model" seems as yet irreplaceable when it comes to affording a living wage for journalists".

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Detroit hasn't exactly been on everybody's lips as the next great MLS market (Don Garber announced that was likely Montreal in his State of the League address yesterday).

But news from the Free Press at least potentially puts the city back on the table: "A family-owned Toronto real estate company has submitted a winning bid of $583,000 for the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions until they moved to Ford Field in 2002, and nearly 130 adjacent acres.

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While FIFA's decision to seed the European group playoff match-ups—basically a mulligan for underachieving powerhouses Portugal, France and Russia—worked according to plan, along came Egypt to remind us all why football is a sport like no other.

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The American soccer blogosphere has been getting very hot and bothered in the past week, prompted by Jason Davis at Match Fit USA's tongue-in-cheek post questioning Columbus' suitability for remaining in MLS, following poor attendance in their last playoff game: a mere 10,109 showed up at Crew Stadium last week to see the defending champions crash out to Real Salt Lake.

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The headline story in this piece on the Premier League's consideration of Bolton chairman Phil Gartside's proposals for restructuring the league focuses on the nix put on the idea of Rangers and Celtic joining the Premier League, with that immediately ruled out now and forever.

Guido Erhard, who also struggled with depression

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The suicide of Robert Enke has shocked German football, with the country cancelling its friendly with Chile this Saturday and tributes pouring in.

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After months of speculation about a breakaway in North America's second division, featuring farcical news management by USL and ambitious statements from the renegade Team Owners Association, it's been confirmed today that a new second division professional league will launch in the United States in 2010, consisting of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps and St.

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So, Remembrance Sunday has come and gone, and so have the weekend fixtures in the Premier League. Did you notice your club donning silkscreen poppies on the centre of their shirts? And did the gesture move you like a Last Post and Reveille to remember the horror of war?

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Jack Warner has returned a handbag given to him by the England World Cup bid because of "embarrassment", launching even by his absurd standards a bizarre rhetorical attack on the Football Association.

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So, despite protests from fans and politicians, Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has further cemented his unpopularity on Tyneside by announcing the renaming of St. James' Park apparently believing that adding an "@" symbol to it means the club is respecting history.

Stan Kroenke continues to edge closer to a takeover of Arsenal. He is now at a 29.6% shareholding, just shy of the 29.9% that by city rules would trigger a takeover bid. The Arsenal Supporters' Trust (AST) sent out a press release about the news today, which stated that they were opposed to a takeover by Kroenke (and also mentioned they did not believe one was imminent anyway).

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The dramatic failure of Toronto FC this year, after a struggling season was concluded as the club blew its chance of making the playoffs by getting torn apart 5-0 by Red Bull New York, has thrown the entire direction of the team up for debate as well as the future of general manager Mo Johnston.

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The future of Rafa Benitez dominates the British press this morning, as Liverpool slumped to their sixth defeat in seven games and fingers are being jabbed once again: former Liverpool star Ronnie Whelan suggests Rafa does not care about the Premier League; Sam Wallace concludes that Rafa is too clever for his own good; John Ley looks at the facts unnecessarily needed to prove Liverpool have had a poor start; and David Hytner looks at the club's growing injury crisis, the one mitigating factor that seems to be saving Rafa.

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MLS looks like it will kick off next season without its two biggest stars, David Beckham and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, with the former set for a return to Milan and the latter returning to Veracruz.

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Every time crowd trouble breaks out involving an English team as it did this week when Manchester United fans visited Barnsley in the Carling Cup, we get the "return to the dark ages" pieces that suggest these are nostalgic occasions akin to 70s night at your local disco.

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The Kick it Out campaign for equality and inclusion in English football has been a notable success over the years, and is currently in the midst of a high-profile campaign this month, "One Game, One Community.

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DC United's club president Kevin Payne has never lacked for chutzpah, and after a season in which the team launched a website called "We Win Trophies" but have failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, arguing that DC had at least earned some kind of a moral victory for their style of play is quite something.

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Today most newspapers are running with the extraordinary pressure on Rafa Benitez's Liverpool to win their fixture today against Manchester United, a game that Gary Neville recently called Manchester's "real" derby. Following last week's infamous (foot)Ball on (beach)Ball action and a home loss to Lyon in the CL, the fans and press have their fangs out for Liverpool's big man, and if not for him, then the American whipping boys Gillette and Hicks.

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The surprising news that one of the greatest and highest-earning footballers of his generation, John Barnes, had somehow managed to end up bankrupt is superbly deconstructed in a piece looking at players' incomes and financial cluelessness by former Ireland star Tony Cascarino, as he considers how the likes of even recent Premier League stars like Eric Djemba-Djemba and John Arne Riise have somehow suffered a similar fate despite their massive pay checks.

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It's been a bad week for football with racism by fan(s) prominently rearing its head again. Supporters continue to take a stand against racism in the game, but sometimes even their own clubs don't support their efforts in a shocking and petty move, Bristol Rovers management have refused to run an anti-racism ad in the club's matchday magazine by the club's own supporters trust, the Gas Independent Fans' Trust (GIFT).

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Yesterday's stunning day of UEFA Champions League action is of course the focus of discussion today, with every game providing talking juicy points for the press.

The British press naturally focused on Liverpool after their home defeat to Lyon.

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The Guardian, and particularly Football Supporters' Federation writer of the year David Conn, have provided Britain's best newspaper coverage of the ugly underbelly of the finances at British football clubs across England for quite some time.

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It might be early in the season, but the obituary notices are already being written in England: the Big Four is dead. Remember the Big Five from the 1980s (Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton)?

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The Montreal Impact defeated the defending champions Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 at Stade Saputo yesterday to win the USL-1 Final 6-3 on aggregate. First half goals from Tony Donatelli, Joey Gjertsen and Roberto Brown were all Montreal needed to win, although Vancouver defender Shaun Pejic's controversial red card in the 29th minute for hauling down the last man in the area probably helped a mite.

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As expected, the Republic of Ireland have not been seeded for the World Cup playoffs the four countries who have been are France, Portugal, Russia and Greece, who will each face one of Ireland, Bosnia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

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The biggest drama of a long and interesting day of World Cup qualification was reserved for RFK Stadium in Washington DC. After a week that must have drained the U.S. players to the core, with the terrible near-death experience for forward Charlie Davies, Bob Bradley's boys somehow found it in them to pull out a 95th minute equaliser by Jonathan Bornstein ("the ball just fell on my head and I put it away.

Estadio Centenario

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Uruguay were once the greatest force in world football, revolutionising the way the sport was played, and putting South America on the map in the 1920s and 1930s. They remain the smallest country to ever win the World Cup, with a population under four million.

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After years of torturous ownership from the insulting and patronising Halls to the clueless and inept Mike Ashley it would seem no wonder that Newcastle fans would be interested in attempting to assert some control on the destiny of their club, especially given their huge numbers and seemingly endless willingness to pump cash in through ticket sales and merchandise.

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There was something for pretty much everyone yesterday, an all-day footballing extravaganza that began with Germany overcoming her many doubters by beating Hiddink's tactically astute Russia in the Luzhniki Stadium, and ended with the United States overcoming a lethargic start and a forty-seventh minute goal by beating Honduras 3-2 in front of a hostile crowd of forty thousand at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano.

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England and the United States might be the favourites to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but both countries have hosted a World Cup before: a fact Russia are counting on as crucial in their own bids. "Every tournament should be held in a country that has not previously hosted it," said sports minister Vitaly Mutko.

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In London today, USL founder and president emeritus Francisco Marcos and USL chief executive Alec Papadakis were scheduled to be hobknobbing at the prestigious Leaders in Football conference, "the world's most exclusive football business event where 1,000 senior executives linked to International Clubs, Leagues, Federations and Brands come together to learn, network and do business.

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Right now, Chelsea are hosting the Leaders in Football conference, billed as "the world's most exclusive football business event where 1,000 senior executives linked to International Clubs, Leagues, Federations and Brands come together over 3 nights and 2 days at Chelsea FC to learn, network and do business.

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Have fans become spoiled, expecting every major game to be available for free and in their own language on their home television set, whereever the game is being played? The patchy television rights structure of World Cup qualifiers in which home teams sell their own coverage has led to considerable frustration for fans of both England and the U.