Today's other stories in brief
Liverpool takeover nearly complete
Liverpool will have new ownership by the time they bid to reach the Champions League semi-finals next month.
George Gillett and Tom Hicks announced yesterday that they had acquired 80.7 per cent of the club's shares to give then unconditional control of the Anfield club.
By the time Liverpool travel to Eindhoven for the first leg of the quarter-finals on April 3rd, Gillett and Hicks will have completed a 100 per cent buy-out and be co-chairman.
"This is a historic day for the club," said Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry. "It's obviously very pleasing to hear that George and Tom have reached the threshold."
The Americans need just another nine per cent to force a compulsory purchase of every share, and they have extended Monday's 3pm deadline until March 26th to allow remaining small shareholders to agree to sell and claim the package of privileges - including season ticket and cup ticket purchasing - that is on offer.
Meanwhile, Liverpool yesterday confirmed Peter Crouch is to have nose surgery which will put him out of Premiership games against Aston Villa and Arsenal. He is set to return to the side for the trip to Reading on April 7th. He will also miss his side's Champions League game in Eindhoven.
League acting quickly
League of Ireland director Fran Gavin has confirmed that a delegation from Merrion Square will travel to Zurich on Monday to take up the cases of the players here who have been affected by Fifa's ruling that individuals cannot feature for more than two clubs between July 1st of one year and June 30th of the next, reports Emmet Malone.
"We've been gathering details on all of the cases and intend to present them to Fifa at the earliest opportunity in order to get this situation resolved," said Gavin after meeting with the league's legal adviser and FAI careers officer Eoin Hand, who has extensive experience of dealing with Fifa.
Gavin dismissed the suggestion that dozens of players were affected by the rule and insisted that just eight cases, not including those of Gareth Farrelly and Colin Healy at Cork City, had come to light.
He added that it had been important to avoid making the situation worse by allowing the players line out for their clubs until the proper clearance had been obtained.
Under-19s for Portugal
Ireland's under-19s will return to the scene of last weekend's Lisbon Invitation tournament after being grouped with Portugal for the group qualifying stages of the next European Youth Championships, writes Emmet Malone.
The under-19s will also take on Belarus and Andorra for a place in the second, elite group phase. The preliminary group competition will be staged in Portugal between November 1st and 6th of this year.
The under-17s, meanwhile, have been drawn in a group with Denmark, Ukraine and Slovenia. That mini-tournament will take place between September 14th and 19th with the venue still to be agreed among the various associations.
Newstalk gets rights
Newstalk 106-108 has acquired the right to broadcast live commentaries on Sunday afternoon English Premiership games, reports Emmet Malone. From August of this year the station will carry complete coverage of both the 1.30 and 4.0 matches.
Today FM, meanwhile, has retained the live rights to Saturday afternoon games in the English top flight that have provided the backbone of its highly successful Premiership Live programme.
Both deals will run from August 2007 for three years.
In Brief . ..
Roberto Carlos insists he has not yet made a decision on where to play next season after announcing he will leave Real Madrid when his contract expires on June 30th. The 33-year-old former Brazil international will miss today's "clasico" against Barcelona (live Sky Sports 1, 9pm) because of a leg injury . . . Celtic midfielder Thomas Gravesen (ankle) and striker Craig Beattie (thigh strain) are doubts for tomorrow's SPL Old Firm derby against Rangers (live Setanta Ireland, 12.30).
