The days of the great broad expressway to South Africa 2010 are decisively past: the struggle now has moved onto a narrow mountain pass. Every victory won today was as thin as it may be decisive. And it wasn't merely Europe – many held their breath across the world today. Few have cause to exhale yet.

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by TRAVIS CLARK

One game, everything to play for. When tonight's World Cup playoff between Bahrain and New Zealand (2am, FSC) kicks off, the winner claims a spot in South Africa, while the loser faces the prospect of missing the tournament once again.

Neither side is a prominent soccer nation, yet the underlying feeling is that the winning nation's program would receive a much-needed shot in the arm.

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Over 50 clubs from Saudi Arabia to Merseyside have beaten Real since 1999. Agonised Atlético still aren't one of them.
Groundhog day for Atlético as Real dish out familiar Madrid derby pain. Click to continue reading...

The above strike from Al-Hilal midfielder Nawaf Al-Abid (or Alabed, you choose) is said to be the fastest goal in world football. It came just two seconds into Al-Hilal's Prince Faisal bin Fahd Cup (a U-23 tournament) game vs Al- Shoulain in Saudi Arabia this weekend. No doubting the fact that this goal was quick. Click to continue reading...

Just two clips for today. Some curious bit of stuff from Ferguson.

This year on the FA's proposed England friendly in Qatar:

'All the international managers have their jobs to do and we support that, particularly when it comes to the issue of competitive games like the European Championships or the World Cup.

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Getting a telecom company on board could improve your team's flame resistance Saudi club Al-Hilal celebrated their new sponsorship deal with telecom company Mobily by holding a reality TV-meets-James Bond training camp atop a volcano. The team plays kickabout with some very hot footballs while dodging the various life-threatening hazards introduced by coach Eric Gerets (he is [. Click to continue reading...

Oh no!

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Liverpool co-owner George Gillett says Rafael Benitez's position as manager of the club is safe, despite the 2-1 home defeat by Lyon in the Champions League.

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Saudi sports investor F6 claim George Gillett's talks with them were not about buying his stake in Liverpool.
Liverpool co-owner Gillett visited Riyadh this week to discuss possible investment opportunities with reports suggesting Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah could buy Gillett's 50 per cent stake in the English giants. Click to continue reading...

There still 9 spots left for the World Cup. But one thing is for sure: 32 is not enough for the number of cool nations around. We are still months away from the World Cup, but here are nations that we already miss. And the reason we miss them? Some of them,at some point in some edition of the tournament, played nice football.

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Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdulla has said his F6 company hopes to finalise talks over a major Liverpool share deal.
Speaking to the press as Liverpool co-owner George Gillett visited Riyadh, Prince Faisal said: "Our negotiations to buy shares in Liverpool are ongoing, meetings are taking place and we might be in the final stages in the coming days. Click to continue reading...

The clock is ticking!

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Saudi prince: Liverpool talks near 'final stage'

Prince Faisal says his company's negotiations to buy shares in Liverpool are ongoing.

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The race for South Africa is heading down the final stretch and with the end of each round of fixtures comes the inevitable relief of those nations whose qualification has been secured. Notwithstanding the final set of group stage qualifying fixtures to be played later this week, below are the winners and losers if the road to World Cup 2010 ended today:

Still a couple of summer holidays up for grabs

South America (4; top placed in group) – Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina

With Uruguay and Ecuador breathing down their neck, Maradona's Argentina face a crunch tie in Montevideo in front of 73,000 baying Uruguayans, that will determine if Aguero and Co.

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Ali Al Faraj has made headlines all over the world the last few weeks with his purchase of Premier League club Portsmouth. Ironically, the head of the Saudi Arabia league, Dr. Hafez Al Medlej, claims that until just as recently as the public eye he never knew who Al Faraj even was:

I hope Al Faraj has success, but we never heard of this guy.

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Overnight the peoples of Ivory Coast, Chile, Serbia, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Mexico popped the champagne. Now there are 19 on the party list, and there's mass patriotic emotion attached to the competition for the final 13 places. I'll have a look at some of the more interesting ones (to me ok).
Last night New Zealand held Bahrain to a 0:0 draw on Bahrain's turf. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is on a collision course with Denmark over the fitness of Daniel Agger.
The Reds centre half has managed just 68 minutes for the reserves this season so far, as he slowly returns from a back problem, but looks set to play for his country in two games over the next four days. Click to continue reading...

Originally part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine played their first official match in 1992. But for their first few years as a national squad many of the best Ukrainian players decided to play for Russia (since it was the major Soviet Union country) and playing for the Ukraine squad was often considered an afterthought for players that were not good enough to make Russia's squad.

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Liverpool co-owner George Gillett is flying to Saudi Arabia next week for talks in a bid to sell his 50 per cent stake to Prince Faisal bin Fahd.
Gillett is due to arrive in the Middle East on Wednesday and is scheduled for a three-day stay to sort out the deal with the Prince's advisers and his financial company F6 Sports. Click to continue reading...

Great news.

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George Gillett will fly to the Middle East next week for negotiations over selling his stake in Liverpool.
The Reds co-owner is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, according to the Daily Mirror, will meet Prince Faisal bin Fahd during a three-day stay.

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The Kuwaiti royal family, long since linked with a move to buy an English soccer club, attended Chelsea's match with Liverpool this weekend, which ended in a 2-0 victory for the London team.
Though Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is not believed to be seeking any investment in his team, the same cannot be said of Liverpool's co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who have appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Rothschild to advise on possible investments. Click to continue reading...

Good news for Pompey fans.

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Saudi business tycoon Ali Al Faraj has completed his takeover of Portsmouth, acquiring a 90% stake in the club.

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With the final set of World Cup 2010 qualifying fixtures coming up for many teams, David Scullion takes a closer look at which teams are on the brink of qualification.

AFRICA

As we all know South Africa have qualified as next years hosts.

Also in Africa, Ghana have qualified for their second consecutive finals appearance, gazumping all the teams in their group with 2 games to spare.

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Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah, a member of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia who claimed this week that he was close to agreeing a deal to invest in English soccer club Liverpool, has now spoken out about the ongoing tension between the club's American owners.
Liverpool and members of Fahd bin Abdullah's own company moved swiftly to distance themselves from his claims this week, with the club's owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, admitting that they have retained Bank of American Merrill Lynch and Rothschild to advise on possible investments but saying that any talks are in preliminary stages. Click to continue reading...

Speculation continues about the possibility of Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud, a member of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, buying into Liverpool, after the English Premier League club admitted that it had appointed advisors to look at new investment opportunities.
Fahd bin Abdullah's F6 company has signed an agreement with Liverpool and co-owner George Gillett's Nascar franchise, Richard Petty MOtorsports, that will see two Liverpool-backed youth academies and a number of motor racing tracks built in Saudi Arabia. Click to continue reading...

An Indian billionaire is the latest wealthy individual to express an interest in investing in Liverpool.
Representatives of the unidentified man, who made his fortune in the energy industry, held talks with George Gillett Jr., the Liverpool co-owner, at a dinner meeting held at the Cipriani restaurant in Mayfair, Central London, on Sunday. Click to continue reading...

Neither George Gillett Jr. nor Tom Hicks, the co-owners of Liverpool, is expecting imminent investment in the club from Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud, a member of the Saudi Royal Family, despite reports to the contrary over the weekend.
Hicks and Gillett are in ongoing talks with a number of potential third-party investors as they seek first to reduce Liverpool's £250 million debt and second to bring in the kind of sizeable cash injection needed to finance the club's move from Anfield to a long-planned new stadium on nearby Stanley Park. Click to continue reading...

F6, the Saudi Arabian sports investment company, has confirmed that it has reached an agreement with Liverpool to establish a number of football academies in the region.
The deal was signed with George Gillett Jr., the Liverpool co-owner, and will seek to set up two exclusive academies in Saudi Arabia and two in North Africa while also extending the interests of the American's NASCAR franchise, Richard Petty Motorsports. Click to continue reading...

Are the American jokers soon to be on their way?

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RIYADH (Reuters) A Saudi prince said on Sunday he was prepared to spend up to 350 million pounds to buy a 50 percent stake in English soccer club Liverpool, Al-Riyadh newspaper quoted him as saying.

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I came across a forum that mentioned Prince Faisal Khaled is reportedly interested in buying a 25%-50% stake in LFC. Allegedly Saudi TV reported that the deal will be finalised at tonight's game. The prince owns the Sports Investment FX company or something.Â

If anyone understands Arabic and can confirm whether it is really the Prince, please check out here: http://liverpoolfc.

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This is slightly later than planned so sorry about that. I had this dream last night, I was playing for Derby County against Arsenal and it finished 4-4, even though I was playing for Derby (yes I know, my brain doesn't know what side its bread's buttered on), I wanted Arsenal to win of course.

Strange one.

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All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

Is Maradona untouchable as Argentina's manager? [Reuters Blog]

How West Ham persuaded Jermain Defoe to leave Charlton. [The Spoiler]

Sir Alex says everyone is jealous of United.

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Another busy day of World Cup qualification spanning the globe saw three more teams book their ticket to South Africa. England, Spain, and Paraguay now mean that 11 nations have qualified for next year's competition.

In England, revenge was sweet against Croatia, as two goals apiece from midfield stalwarts Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard keyed a 5-1 romp.

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Another busy day of World Cup qualification spanning the globe saw three more teams book their ticket to South Africa. England, Spain, and Paraguay now mean that 11 nations have qualified for next year's competition.

In England, revenge was sweet against Croatia, as two goals apiece from midfield stalwarts Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard keyed a 5-1 romp.

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Three more trips to South Africa have been booked. England (1) did so in style with a 5-1 woodshed beating of Croatia. Capello has those guys coming around, eh?
Spain (2) beat Estonia 3-0 in its clincher. And Paraguay (3) did some double-duty, advancing on a 1-0 win against Argentina, which further troubled Maradona's side. Click to continue reading...

In Europe, England qualified for the World Cup in South Africa in style from Group 6 with a 5-1 thrashing of Croatia at Wembley. Two goals a piece from Gerrard and Lampard and one from Rooney meant that England qualified with a 100% record so far in their group.
Elsewhere in the the European qualifying zone Northern Ireland's hopes of making the tournament took a blow with a 2-0 loss at home to Slovakia. Click to continue reading...

When Ahmed Hassan wheeled away to celebrate scoring a 92nd minute equalizer against Trinidad and Tobago, Bahrain believed they were on their way to the 2006 World Cup. Colombian ref Oscar Julian Ruiz Acost had other ideas. The goal was of the Best Banks variety. The sort of goal no one wants to see disallowed, especially when the forward's cheekiness is executed with such fine precision.

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