Uefa took a decision in 2007 to switch the night of the Champions League final from midweek to Saturday. The plan came into effect last year for the final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Madrid and will presumably continue until European football's governing body changes its mind again.
This new timing, said Uefa president Michel Platini at the time, was in response to the paucity of families and children in the crowd for the midweek final between Liverpool and AC Milan in Athens. Platini said the move to Saturday would allow more of them to attend because the kids would not have school the next day.
This dose of medicine was not to be swallowed for the Europa Cup final, however, as "one on Saturday is enough". So bad luck if you happen to be of school age and your team reaches that dizzy height. You will just have to yawn through class the next day.
Read the rest of this entry
The research into the efficacy of the code raises a number of important questions.
It's a meaty piece of work, looking at how the various national anti-doping agencies across Europe comply with Wada's requirements. Compliance is patchy, to say the least.
Of the 49 organisations it looked at, based on 2009 figures, only 20 actually published annual reports. There are large holes in the data they're required to provide to Wada, thus making it difficult, they argue, to measure how effective anti-doping policy is.
It also came up with the interesting statistic that it takes 600 out-of-competition tests to find a positive, but only 62 in competition. This, they say, adds weight to their argument that is inefficient, and therefore should be brought into question.
Read the rest of this entry
The problem I have with match-fixing in football is wondering how worried to be about it.
The sum of the information from house following their is difficult to quantify.
On the one hand, the head of the investigation being carried out in Germany, commissioner Friedhelm Alhans, painted a depressing picture, with 300 suspicious games under scrutiny in an investigation that's seen 70 people arrested in Turkey, more than 20 in Croatia, and everything from international friendlies, a Champions League and some Europa Cup games, to lower league semi-pro matches under examination.
He says it's the "tip of the iceberg". Working on the literal principle, that means it's about 10 times worse than they already know about.
Read the rest of this entry
I've been Radio 5 Live's Sports News and Olympics Correspondent since 1998. I'll be looking at the events behind the headlines in all sports but especially on the road to London 2012. 