A round-up of today's other stories in brief

'Chaos' needs to be addressed

LONDON MARATHON race director Dave Bedford has suggested Alex Ferguson should ask for the FA Cup semi-final dates to be changed after the Manchester United manager predicted “absolute chaos” in the capital next month.

United are due to tackle Manchester City at Wembley on April 16th, with Bolton taking on Stoke the following day.

All four teams will take a similar route down to London for the encounters and will be joined by Liverpool fans, whose side face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on April 17th.

In addition, hundreds of thousands will line the streets of London for the annual marathon, prompting a warning from Ferguson of “absolute chaos” in the city over the weekend.

“There have been clashes in the past with other events at Wembley and I suggest that if Sir Alex is that concerned he should urge the FA to move their dates,” said Bedford.

Poland to tackle hooligan problem

UEFA HAVE admitted Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland face a “huge image problem” over their hooliganism.

Martin Kallen, Uefa’s director of Euro 2012, said there are hooligan outbreaks at just about every league match in Poland, who are hosting the tournament with neighbours Ukraine, and 60 Polish fans were detained after throwing bottles, flares and benches at police during the friendly in Lithuania last week.

The Polish government have recently announced new laws to tackle football violence. “What we saw at last Friday’s match was not a very good picture to see that happening in a stadium. We and the Polish government are concerned. They are taking this seriously and will have changes in the next month,” said Kallen.

Scolari tried to offload Drogba

LUIZ FELIPE Scolari has revealed he tried to offload Didier Drogba while Chelsea manager and confirmed the pair had “conflicts” during his short reign at Stamford Bridge. It now appears Scolari failed to convince billionaire owner Roman Abramovich to swap Drogba for then Inter Milan striker Adriano. “Drogba believed he was the star in the squad and I did have conflicts with him,” said Scolari.

Van Persie could be fit for Blackburn

ARSENAL ARE hopeful Robin van Persie could be available for Saturday’s Premier League match against Blackburn Rovers despite the striker injuring his left thigh playing for Holland on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old was replaced at half-time of the Euro 2012 qualifier with Hungary, after being floored by a tackle from Vilmos Vanczak. Bert van Marwijk, the Holland coach, said of Van Persie’s hopes of making an immediate return: “With luck he could play for Arsenal this weekend. Robin got a knee to his thigh. It didn’t look very serious but it was too painful for him to carry on as he was hit by a knee above his own knee.” Van Persie was yesterday assessed by the club’s medical team and the seriousness of the injury will become clearer over the next 24 hours.

Lucas signs new long-term contract

LIVERPOOL MIDFIELDER Lucas Leiva has signed a new long-term contract with the club.

The Brazil international is currently enjoying his best season in a red shirt since arriving from Gremio in the summer of 2007 for €5.7 million.

Lucas has grown in stature as a central midfielder following the departure of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano in recent seasons and made his 100th Premier League appearance against Wigan in February.

With the 24-year-old’s previous contract having only just over a year to run and continued speculation about Liverpool renewing their interest in Blackpool’s Charlie Adam in the summer, there had been suggestions Lucas could be on his way out.

Only this week he was linked with Serie A side Napoli but the likeable Brazilian always insisted he wanted to remain at Anfield and he has got his wish.

Robson on road to recovery from throat cancer

FORMER MANCHESTER United and England captain Bryan Robson is confident of making a full recovery from throat cancer, the Thailand boss said yesterday.

The 54-year-old former midfielder had an operation to remove a tumour earlier this month and showed he was on the road to recovery by attending a soccer conference.

“The operation to remove the tumour was successful and now I’ve got to go on a course for five weeks of (radiotherapy) treatment,” Robson told reporters at the Soccerex European business forum in Manchester.

“I’m feeling fine in myself. All the specialists have been really positive that I should have a 100 per cent recovery.

“To be fair, that’s all I wanted to hear, I’ll just try to get on with the treatment and be as positive as I can be.”