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• John Terry's promoters look to top up lucrative earnings
• Email stresses defender's 'hero' status
John Terry's willingness to capitalise on his position as England's World Cup captain was demonstrated last night when it emerged that he is being touted for commercial deals with prospective clients.
His promoter Riviera Entertainment has sent a mass email to businesses outlining the eagerness of the Chelsea defender, who earns around £170,000 a week, to make the most of his endorsement earnings potential.
Riviera's email encourages companies to "get your message across" by signing up with the England captain, who is described as "a British sporting hero" and "Dad of the year 2008".
It continues: "If you are looking for a fresh approach for your brand during the time leading up to the World Cup, or feel it would benefit from being associated with a leader – especially relevant in today's ultra-competitive marketplace – then why not let the nation's football captain help get your message across."
The Enfield-based marketing company maintained that its promotion of Terry was not brazen or desperate but part of a plan to secure long-term endorsements for the player. "We are taking care of John's commercial deals before the World Cup," the company's spokesman Steve Parks told the Independent. "We have got an ideal target of who he is going to endorse."
Terry is not contravening any Football Association rules or his Chelsea contract in hoping to expand an already lucrative portfolio.
• 'We're exciting to watch and things are happening' says striker
• 'We believe we have the ability to finish in the top four'
Peter Crouch hopes that Tottenham Hotspur's crushing victory over Wigan Athletic last Sunday can have the same galvanising effect as the previous such thumping that he was involved in.
The England striker scored twice in Liverpool's 7-0 FA Cup quarter-final win at Birmingham City in March 2006, and he remembers how Rafael Benítez's team went on to win all nine of their remaining fixtures that season, including the FA Cup final against West Ham United on penalties.
Tottenham travel to Aston Villa tomorrow determined to build upon their 9-1 triumph over Wigan. "My biggest previous result was in the Cup for Liverpool against Birmingham," said Crouch. "I was on a hat-trick and I was telling Rafa 'Leave me on, leave me on, I'm on a hat-trick' but he pulled me off. The result was a big thing for our confidence, it had a great effect on us.
"The football that we play at Tottenham is exciting to watch and I think the fans who pay their money should be excited by what's happening. We don't want to get carried away by only one game but it was a fantastic result and if you can't take confidence from a game like that, then I don't know… If we can play like that again, it will be great. We will keep doing what we have been doing and not worry about other teams too much."
Tottenham achieved the eye-catching result without arguably their most creative player, the injured midfielder Luka Modric. In Aaron Lennon and Niko Kranjcar, however, they had wingers at the top of their form and in Jermain Defoe, who scored five times, they had the lethal predator. "Aaron was fantastic and Jermain was playing right on the shoulder of the defender and he seemed to score with every opportunity," said Crouch.
"We can score from loads of positions. There's Niko in midfield and Tom Huddlestone, those two pull the strings. We have players who can open up defences, creative players like Modric, such fantastic players. The way that Spurs pass the ball, scoring goals, movement… it's all top class. As for a top-four finish, we just have to keep plugging away. We all believe there is enough ability to get in there but we don't want to talk too much."
• Mawhinney says further questions have been asked
• Complex and confusing structure around club
The Football League has renewed its inquiries into Notts County's ownership. Lord Mawhinney, the Football League chairman, confirmed to the Guardian yesterday that the Meadow Lane club has been sent a series of questions relating to its ownership structure.
The Football League had declared last month that the club had passed the fit and proper persons tests after it had been assured that the controversial businessman Russell King was not involved with County.
Guardian investigations into the companies that own County have revealed that they are part of a complex and confusing structure with many connections between individuals associated with the project.
Separately, doubts have also emerged about the terms of the £5m guarantee of funds that Munto Finance produced that persuaded the Notts County supporters trust to sign over control of the club for a nominal consideration of £1. That guarantee, produced in May of this year, came from a company belonging to First London, a financial services firm.
The letter of guarantee is drafted in an unconventional fashion and may not easily be enforceable. An expert in contract law has raised doubts about the document. A corporate law partner at Olswang said: "The letter of guarantee is quite imprecise and confusing. It refers to the guarantee being able to be invoked if Munto does not make "investments" in Blenheim 1862 [the club's holding company that was majority owned by the supporters' trust] but it does not define when and how such investments must be made.
"In addition the breadth of the wording regarding 'settlement means' would imply that Blenheim 1862 would have to seek final legal judgement against Munto before it could secure funds from First London. This is unusual.
"Also the Guarantee is addressed to Blenheim 1862 and not to the shareholders of Blenheim 1862. There is no third party rights provision that would enable the shareholders of Blenheim 1862 to enforce the terms of the Guarantee."
First London did not comment on those terms but said it is unlikely to be required to pay out, saying that Munto Finance has sufficient funds to meet its obligations. It stressed the guarantee is "not in any event triggered [without] a final Court Order on the relevant debt."
The First London balance sheet showed assets of £180m as at 31 March, but the latest accounts filed by the company also reveal that at that point First London held just £18,657 in cash and had only £1.3m available to it in undrawn borrowings. It is unclear what First London's equity assets include, but it enjoyed an impressive year to 31 March (see page 3).
First London says that the letter of guarantee to Blenheim 1862 was actually made by a Bahrain-domiciled subsidiary. This is not clear from the letter, however, which has a First London letterhead, its London address and is signed by a director of the UK company. As at 31 March, the only Bahrain-domiciled subsidiary of First London was recorded as dormant.
In addition, Guardian investigations have revealed that there are individuals linked with both First London and Swiss Commodity Holding, the company in which the Notts County director of football, Sven-Goran Eriksson, believes he was promised shares as part of his inducement to join the club, and whose logo is at the heart of the new Notts County club badge.
Representatives of Swiss Commodity Holding, including Russell King, were recently pictured meeting Kim Yong-nam, effectively North Korea's head of state, in Pyongyang.
First London and Swiss Commodity Holding share a director, Nigel Little. Kevin Leech, a former Jersey bankrupt, is another director of SCH. In First London's annual return in June this year it was revealed that 11% of First London is owned through a trust called Condor Ventures, whose owner was recorded as Leech in a separate filing that month.
On 16 October First London sold its asset management division to Swiss Commodity for £173m.
Last year First London issued new shares to take over Bahrain Capital, a company which had connections to Russell King. Subsequent to that deal a company called Mirison Invest & Finance assumed a 44.3% share in First London. It is ultimately controlled by an entity called Amorgos Trust.
A spokesman for First London said: "Russell King and Nathan Willett have no shareholding interest, whether directly or indirectly, in First London."
The signature on the First London letter of guarantee to Blenheim 1862, which was then controlled by the supporters' trust, belonged to Per Brandtzag, a Swedish national, who has only been a director of First London since March. He is resident in Bahrain and is an acquaintance of King and Nathan Willett.
Willett's father, Peter, is a board member at Meadow Lane, while Nathan Willett signed the deed of gift on behalf of Munto when it acquired the supporters' trust shares on 31 May.
The Football League had become concerned about the involvement of King in Notts County after it was revealed that he was involved in a fraud investigation in Jersey. A former employee had also blamed him for the loss of a six-figure sum that he maintains King persuaded him to invest in Belgravia, a Jersey based investment house now in liquidation. King denied the allegation
The league only cleared the County takeover after the club assured it that King's role had simply been that of an adviser and that he had severed all ties. Until Nathan Willett stepped down to be replaced by the new board, including Kevin Leech, earlier this month he and his father had been the sole directors of Swiss Commodity.
The Guardian's revelation that King had represented SCH (whose logo lies at the heart of County's new club badge) on a trip to Pyongyang reawoke the league's interest according to a source familiar with the inquiry. It has also been provided with fresh financial information that indicates that King ordered a batch of British Virgin Islands shell companies last year. These included Munto and Qadbak, two offshore vehicles in the Notts County ownership chain (see graphic, left). A spokeswoman for Qadbak said King "has no involvement" with it or its subsidiary, Munto Finance.
The Guardian has made available to the Football League board documents relating to the companies' financial affairs. Mawhinney has made clear that the league does not investigate clubs but does from time to time raise questions to which it requires answers, but said these must always remain a matter between the league and the club.
In separate developments it has emerged that Notts County has had three separate county court judgments against it lodged since July. The first is for £2,288, another for £5,442 and the most recent for only £846.
The Meadow Lane board had also received a winding-up order from HM Revenue & Customs demanding a six-figure sum in unpaid tax from its UK parent company, Blenheim 1862. The papers were served in the bankruptcy division of the high court in September but the matter was resolved five working days before it was due to be heard.
• Avram Grant inherits thankless task at Fratton Park
• David James greets appointment of 'a very wise man'
As the man who followed José "I'm not one from a bottle" Mourinho at Chelsea, Avram Grant is familiar with taking on challenges of which contestants on the Krypton Factor may have been wary.
Yet Grant's appointment as Portsmouth manager yesterday apparently requires him to display even more superpowers than he required at Stamford Bridge, where he followed a charismatic head coach with movie-star looks and a bulging array of silverware that included Premier League titles in consecutive seasons.
On the south coast Grant, who takes his opening training session this morning, has an easier predecessor to follow in Paul Hart, who was sacked on Tuesday. However, the Israeli walks into a club rooted to the bottom of the table, riven by internecine politics, crippled by debt, and now on their third owner in three months – Ali al-Faraj, the absentee Saudi.
When Grant glances at Portsmouth's imminent fixtures he is unlikely to feel any warmer. The ordeal commences with the visit of the champions, Manchester United, to Fratton Park tomorrow, while Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool must all be negotiated before the close of the year.
While any points from these games would be a welcome bonus Grant will concentrate on winning the matches against those teams above Portsmouth who are also threatened with relegation. This means Saturday week's visit of Burnley, who are 10 points better off than Portsmouth – whose tally is only seven – then the Boxing Day trip to West Ham United (four points and three place better off). These encounters will be focused on as those that have to be won before the new year.
Grant is also sure to tighten Portsmouth's formation, discarding the two strikers often favoured under Hart, a system that yielded a paltry 10 goals and has left the club as the lowest scorers in the division. At Chelsea Grant shook up his personnel, employing Henk ten Cate as his assistant within a month of his arrival, but he will only employ a No2 if he can identify a strong candidate who is not afraid to voice an opinion, as the Dutchman was.
A further headache for Grant is that he will lose up to six players to the African Cup of Nations in January (Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka, Aruna Dindane, Hassan Yebda, Nadir Belhadj and Kevin-Prince Boateng, if Ghana call him up). He is also hindered by his limited ability, due to the club's finances, to recruit in the next transfer window – if the current Premier League embargo is lifted – though he will look to bring in three or four players then. "We are confident money will be made available to Avram," Mark Jacob, the club's executive director and lawyer to Faraj, told the Sun.
While Grant will have to live up to one nickname he picked up in Israel, the Magician, he does have some advantages, such as an intimate knowledge of Portsmouth, having spent a season there in 2006-07 in the director of football role he signed back up for last month. He has accrued vast experience during a 37-year career, which includes winning the Israeli championship at both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa, before spending four years as the national team head coach.
Additionally, as a man who spent his three years of mandatory military duty in the Israeli secret service, he is among the brightest operators plying their trade in football changing rooms, with a reputation for being a players' manager.
The Portsmouth and England goalkeeper David James said yesterday: "I love Avram, he's a great guy. When I first joined the club he was there and very active in his preparation for matches. He is a very wise man and his football knowledge is immense."
Grant will require all that wisdom during the coming months. At Chelsea he negotiated the constant scepticism regarding his appointment and the club's fractured internal politics cleverly enough to reach the 2008 Champions League final, only losing it on penalties to Manchester United, while also taking the team to second place in the Premier League.
Grant is under no illusions, though, about how difficult keeping Portsmouth up will be – the size of the task was a consideration when he weighed up whether to accept the job. However, if he can save the club from relegation Grant will have greatly enhanced his reputation, while ensuring Pompey fans everywhere have a very enjoyable summer contemplating another year of Premier League football next season.
• SFA chief executive wants law change back on agenda
• Gordon Smith says sides could make two challenges per match
The Scottish Football Association's chief executive, Gordon Smith, is considering a fresh attempt to get video replays back on the agenda of the game's lawmakers.
The SFA tried last year to convince the International Football Association Board which governs the game's laws to introduce video technology, but the plans were not approved.
The issue is at the forefront again in the wake of Thierry Henry's handball against the Republic of Ireland last week, which cost the Irish a place in the World Cup finals and Smith wants to see the introduction of a system that gives each manager two challenges per match.
Smith told the BBC: "I don't think referees will be undermined. It will mean we get the right decision in matches.
"If the Irish had called for TV pictures – and the game had stopped anyway – the goal would have been disallowed and they could be going to the World Cup next summer instead of France. That's how vital it is to get these decisions right."
The next IFAB meeting is in March. The board is made up of the four home associations, who each have a vote, and Fifa, who have four votes. Smith could bring a proposal under "any other business".
He said: "I would put forward a system where two challenges are allowed per game per technical area."
Fifa, however, could use the IFAB meeting to try to fast-track the Uefa president Michel Platini's favoured system of having an extra assistant referee behind each goal-line so that it can be used at next summer's World Cup.
• Roy Hodgson has 'verbally agreed' to stay as manager
• Club commitment to Hangeland a big factor in decision
Roy Hodgson has said that he and the Norwegian defender Brede Hangeland will sign new contracts at Fulham "very shortly". The manager, whose current deal expires at the end of the season, said the club's commitment to retaining the centre-back was a factor in his own decision to remain with the club he transformed from relegation threatened to European qualifiers in a season-and-a-half.
The former Blackburn and Internazionale manager said he had reached a verbal agreement with the chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, and it was now just a matter of "putting the contract discussions on to paper".
"I spoke to the chairman [Mohamed Al Fayed] and it's not been a difficult discussion. It seems everyone is keen for me to stay and I've always made it perfectly clear I'm happy to stay here," said Hodgson after last night's 3-0 defeat of Blackburn at Craven Cottage. "Hopefully all will be well and I'll be able to stay longer. I can't put a timescale on it but we are basically in agreement."
A month after leaving the Finland international job Hodgson, 60, took over from Lawrie Sanchez at Fulham in December 2007 with the side sitting in the relegation area. The Cottagers stayed up thanks to a final-day win at Portsmouth and exceeded expectations last season, finishing seventh and qualifying for the Europa League.
The first player Hodgson brought to the club was Hangeland, who he knew from his spell at the Norwegian club Viking FC. Since his £2.5m move from FC Copenhagen the Norway captain's authoritative and classy performances at the centre of the Fulham defence have attracted the attention of Arsène Wenger, among others.
Hodgson said he was "delighted" that the club, by offering the 28-year-old a contract believed to be in the region of £50,000 a week, had convinced the defender to remain as it showed a commitment to retaining the group of players central to the club's vast improvement during his tenure.
"It's been one of the factors for me as well, we have spent two years working very hard putting a team together here and working with the group of players. If I'm going to stay I'm hoping some of these players stay as well and give us success," said Hodgson, whose biggest concern at the moment is a lack of fit strikers.
Bobby Zamora is a doubt for Saturday's visit of Bolton Wanderers after receiving treatment today on the groin injury he suffered ast night. Andrew Johnson is also doubtful as he only resumed training this week after recovering from a groin injury.
• Clubs prepare to mount robust defences to FA charges
• Millwall hire West Ham's former lawyer
The Football Association has set a date for early January to hear the charges brought against West Ham United and Millwall for the crowd trouble which marred their Carling Cup tie on 25 August, with each club intending to mount a robust defence.
West Ham face four charges and Millwall have to contend with three, both clubs facing one apiece of racist abuse by their supporters – against the West Ham striker Carlton Cole and the Millwall forward Jason Price – during the game, which West Ham won 3-1 after extra time.
The clubs also face accusations that they failed to ensure their supporters refrained from violent, threatening, obscene and provocative behaviour, and a failure to ensure the fans did not throw missiles. West Ham face a further charge of failing to ensure their supporters did not enter the field of play.
It is thought that each club feel they did as much as possible to ensure a match which was always likely to be a potential flashpoint went off without trouble. Part of their defence will involve proving the lengths they went to.
West Ham are expected to point to scenes at the end of the Manchester derby in September. Then, a United fan invaded the pitch and was hit by the City striker Craig Bellamy. Carlos Tevez also appeared to have a missile aimed at him, though the object hit the City substitute Javier Garrido. The FA did not take action against the Wales striker, the fan or either club. Millwall have employed Jim Sturman QC, who represented West Ham during the Premier League inquiry into Carlos Tevez in 2007.
During the evening of the Carling Cup tie at Upton Park 13 people were arrested and a 43-year-old Millwall fan, described by police as an "innocent family man", was stabbed in front of his teenage sons, after the group mistakenly attempted to enter the stadium via an entrance for West Ham supporters. The trouble had broken out at around 6pm and the unrest continued close to and inside the stadium.
During the match supporters threw missiles at each other and West Ham's invaded the pitch to taunt Millwall's after their team scored.
• Andy Anson wants to 'move on' following Richards' resignation
• 15 cities deliver bids to host matches in nine years time
The leader of England's campaign to host the World Cup in 2018 has called on the warring internal factions that have hobbled the bid to date to put "personal issues" aside, stop "navel gazing" and move on.
On the day that 15 cities delivered their pitches to host matches during the tournament should the England bid recover from a string of PR disasters to triumph, the chief executive, Andy Anson, said it was important to draw a line under recent frustrations and move on.
Since its earliest days, the bid has been dogged by boardroom bickering, rows over funding, a flurry of negative comments by the Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, and criticism of the bid's chairman, Lord Triesman.
Just 10 days after a wholesale boardroom reshuffle was supposed to mark a new beginning for the board, the Premier League chairman, Sir Dave Richards, resigned this week after concluding that he could no longer work with Triesman.
Anson said that the commitment shown by the 15 bidding cities, who have had to secure contractual guarantees from local government totalling £350m, had reiterated the passion for England's bid. "We owe it to them and we owe it to football fans at home and abroad who want to see the World Cup here to put any personal issues aside and move forward," he said. "This is a winnable bid. We can win it. All I care about now is that we pull together from this moment on and we try our best to bring the World Cup here. Let's not navel gaze any more, let's get on the front foot and start attacking."
Anson admitted he had been "frustrated" by the extent to which domestic football politicking had impinged on the bid but said he remained convinced after conversations with the chief executive, Richard Scudamore, that the support of the Premier League remained "very strong". He added: "I'm not pretending that what happened has been helpful, it clearly hasn't. But we've got to draw a line in the sand and move on."
Paul Elliott, the former Chelsea defender who is now one of only six board members, said efforts to lobby the 24 members of the Fifa executive committee who will decide the destination of the 2018 World Cup in December next year were going well despite the domestic turbulence. "We have got a fantastic leader in Lord Triesman," Elliott said. "I see him as the Daddy, as the captain of this ship."
• 'They haven't performed well enough' says full-back
• Manchester United captain criticises Besiktas display
Gary Neville, the Manchester United captain and a serial Liverpool-baiter, has told Rafael Benítez's team that they got what they deserved in their early exit from the Champions League.
Neville was part of the United side beaten by Besiktas on Wednesday but the Premier League champions had already qualified, and the defender put his own's team disappointment into perspective yesterday when he compared it to the intense frustrations being felt at Anfield.
"Well, you get what you deserve as a team, don't you?" the former England international replied when it was pointed out to him that Benítez's team would not be joining United, Chelsea and Arsenal in the knockout phase.
"We are where we are because we deserve to be there. And it is the same with Liverpool. We went out of the competition ourselves after the group stage a few years back [2005]. They haven't performed well enough in the Champions League this season to get the results, as simple as that."
United had not lost a group game at home in the Champions League since a 3-2 defeat against Deportivo La Coruña in October 2001 and in ordinary circumstances defeat at home to a Besiktas side whose last expedition to England had resulted in an 8-0 thrashing at Liverpool would have led to a full-scale inquest at Old Trafford.
However, Sir Alex Ferguson's team were already guaranteed a place in the knockout stages and there was no more than mild criticism of United's performance from Neville.
"It was disappointing but we just didn't do enough in the last third," he said. "Usually we would expect to score a goal in something like the 96th or 97th minute, and we didn't do that.
"Their goalkeeper [Rustu Recber] made a couple of great saves and our final pass maybe wasn't good enough at times. Maybe the decision-making at times wasn't good enough. And some of the crossing, including mine, wasn't good enough.
"Some of our play in the last third wasn't decisive. We needed to take our chances because some of the general play was good. [Federico] Macheda and [Danny] Welbeck did very well in the first half with their link-up play and we should have created more off that really. We just needed that goal and the fact is we didn't do enough. And that was disappointing because we always expect to score at Old Trafford."
The damage, though, was superficial on an evening that finished with the central defender Nemanja Vidic once again denying reports that he is considering leaving the club at the end of the season.
United need only a draw in their final game of Group B, a trip to Germany to play Wolfsburg on 8 December, to ensure that they win the group and, theoretically, get an easier draw in the next round by being guaranteed a tie against one of the runners-up.
This season, however, it is not that clear. Group A, for example, has been won by Bordeaux, who would not be regarded as a daunting proposition – unlike Bayern Munich and Juventus, who are battling to qualify behind the French side.
"You can finish second in the group and get a favourable draw or finish top and get a draw that is a disaster," Neville said. "It seems a bit topsy-turvy this season with the way results are going.
"I think it will be difficult whoever we get but, for our own pride and the way that we have always liked to do things here, we want to finish top."
• Women labour to 3-0 victory over world's 57th best side
• 'We lacked quality and made stupid decisions' says manager
The England coach, Hope Powell, lambasted her players for a below-par performance in a hollow World Cup qualifying victory achieved with three late goals against one of the weakest sides in contention for a place at the 2011 finals.
The England line-up was missing eight senior players due to injury, illness or non‑football commitments, but that was no excuse, Powell said. "In a game like this, that starting XI should be good enough to get the job done," she said. "We lacked quality, and some of the passing was atrocious from players you'd expect a lot more of. I can't fault their work ethic, but they make the game difficult at times by some of the stupid decisions they make."
The midfielder Fara Williams, one of the team's most accomplished players, and with 78 caps one of their most seasoned internationals, came in for particularly harsh criticism after a performance littered with over-elaborate, mis-hit passes. "For a player of her quality that happens too often, and it's not good enough," Powell said.
Will the Everton player take heed of the reprimand? "She'd better," her coach said, "otherwise she'll find herself out of the team."
Powell's unusually angry response to her team's display was justified after England took until the final 14 minutes to clinch victory against visibly tiring opponents whose world ranking of 57 is 49 places below that of England.
"She's entitled to be mad," said the winger Karen Carney, whose introduction as a 62nd-minute substitute provided an injection of class and energy that proved crucial in the closing stages.
Carney's incisive 76th-minute pass set up the right-back Alex Scott for the first goal, which was followed four minutes later by the substitute Lianne Sanderson's 18-yard strike. The left-back Rachel Unitt's 84th-minute header completed the scoring.
England next meet Austria, on 21 August next year at a venue yet to be confirmed, before facing Spain in what should be the two most critical matches en route to Germany 2011. Powell was in no mood, however, to speculate on her team's qualifying chances.
"If we play as we did in the first half here," she said, "we won't be going anywhere."
Turkey (4-1-4-1) Yilmaz; Kirac (Gurbuz), Demir, Belci, Ercimen; Kara; Koc (Seker 72), Bakir, Yag (Erturk 86), Defterli; Elgalp. Substitutes not used: Ozyumsak, Erol, Ersoy, Uraz.
England (4-2-3-1) Bardsley (New Jersey Sky Blue); Scott (Boston Breakers), White (Arsenal), Bassett (Leeds Carnegie), Unitt (Everton); F. Williams (Everton), Buet (Chelsea) (Carney (Chicago Red Stars) 58); Clarke (Leeds Carnegie) (Sanderson (Chelsea) 76), Westwood (Everton), Smith (Leeds Carnegie); Handley (Everton) (Dowie (Everton) 84). Subs not used: Chamberlain (Chelsea), Susi (Chelsea), Whelan (Everton), Williams (Doncaster Rovers Belles).
Referee Ms S Bastos (Portugal).
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