Boris Johnson has backed the UK’s bid to host the 2030 World Cup (Picture: Getty)
The UK could host the 2030 World Cup after Boris Johnson gave his backing saying it was time to ‘bring football home’.
All four nations have joined together to put forward a bid when the formal process starts next year.
The Prime Minsiter told The Sun: ‘We are very, very keen to bring football home in 2030. I do think it’s the right place.
‘It’s the home of football, it’s the right time. It will be an absolutely wonderful thing for the country.’
The English Football Association said on Twitter that it welcomed ‘the Government’s pledge of £2.8million towards a potential bid’ for the 2030 World Cup.
England hasn’t hosted a major football tournament since Euro 1996 (Picture: Getty)
A joint statement from the FA and the football associations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland last night said: ‘The football associations and Government partners of the UK and Ireland are delighted that the UK Government has committed to support a prospective five-association bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
‘We will continue to undertake feasibility work to assess the viability of a bid before FIFA formally open the process in 2022.
‘Staging a FIFA World Cup would provide an incredible opportunity to deliver tangible benefits for our nations.
Euro 2020 Host Cities & Stadiums
Amsterdam (Netherlands) – Johan Cruyff Arena
Baku (Azerbaijan) – Olympic Stadium
Bilbao (Spain) – San Mames
Bucharest (Romania) – Arena Nationala
Budapest (Hungary) – Puskas Arena
Copenhagen (Denmark) – Parken Stadium
Dublin (Republic of Ireland) – Aviva Stadium
Glasgow (Scotland) – Hampden Park
London (England) – Wembley Stadium
Munich (Germany) – Allianz Arena
Rome (Italy) – Stadio Olimpico
Saint Petersburg (Russia) – Krestovsky Stadium
‘If a decision is made to bid for the event, we look forward to presenting our hosting proposals to FIFA and the wider global football community.’
The 2022 World Cup will take place in Qatar next year, while the 2026 tournament is to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
England has not hosted the World Cup since the victorious 1966 campaign. London, Glasgow and Dublin are among the 12 host cities for the delayed 2020 European Championship, which is scheduled to take place this summer.
Boris Johnson has also offered up Britain’s stadiums to help for the duration of the upcoming Euros. The tournament was due to be staged across a number of cities across Europe last summer, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The event will go ahead this summer, however, there remains a degree of uncertainty as to where matches will be played.
Both semi-finals are due to be hosted at Wembley but the PM says more matches could easily be held in Britain should UEFA face further logistical issues, adding ‘Any other matches they want hosted, we are certainly on for that.’
The left-back claimed Stuart Attwell turned down a penalty to avoid a backlash (Picture: Getty Images)
Manchester United duo Luke Shaw and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will not face any punishment following their comments about referee Stuart Attwell after Sunday’s draw with Chelsea.
In a game of few chances at Stamford Bridge, United felt they were denied a clear penalty in the goalless draw when Callum Hudson-Odoi appeared to handle the ball inside the box.
Referee Attwell was called over to the pitchside monitor on the recommendation of VAR to look at the incident but opted not to award a penalty to the dismay of United’s players.
The referee made the surprise decision not to award a penalty (Picture: Getty Images)
After the game in his post-match interview with Sky Sports, Shaw claimed Attwell had told teammate Harry Maguire that, while he felt it was a penalty, awarding it would ‘cause a lot of talk’.
Solskjaer then backed up his defender’s claims saying he had heard the same thing from his players, as well as launching an attack on rival clubs – including Chelsea – for trying to influence referees.
United quickly moved to say that Shaw had misheard what was said between Maguire and Attwell, with the comments potentially undermining the integrity of the referee.
However, The Times reports that, after reviewing footage from the interviews and reports filed from the match officials, the FA have decided against charging the United duo with misconduct.
It was felt that the comments did not violate disciplinary rule E3(1), which says a player should be charged if their comments imply an official is biased or attacks their integrity, while it would have been difficult to prove the charge to an independent panel.
Hudson-Odoi did appear to handle the ball with his arm in an unnatural position (Picture: Getty)
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Shaw had said: ‘The referee even said to H [Harry Maguire], I heard him say: “If I say it’s a pen then it’s going to cause a lot of talk about it after.” So I don’t know what happened there.
‘H said they got told it was a pen, he [the referee] got told it was a pen by VAR. So I’m not sure what’s gone on. I don’t understand why he’s stopped, if he’s stopped you would think he’s going to give a pen because we had the ball, we were attacking.
‘So it’s confusing with this VAR because… look, if it’s not going to be a pen they might as well just carry on the game and not stop the flow of the game. But I’m not going to moan about it because like I said, I don’t think either team did enough to win.’
After initially not wanting to reveal what Attwell had said ‘because that’s not going to be good for him’, Solskjaer did later confirm Shaw’s version of events.
Erling Haaland is expected to leave Dortmund this summer (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester United legend Andy Cole believes Dortmund superstar Erling Haaland will end up across the city at another of his former clubs, Manchester City.
The Norwegian held talks with the Red Devils over a move to Old Trafford in December 2019 but United were unhappy with the insistence of Mino Raiola that a £62m release clause was inserted into any deal taking the striker to the club.
That saw Haaland opt for Dortmund over Manchester but the 20-year-old is expected to depart this summer, having scored 43 goals in 43 games for the club.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer recently admitted that he’s still keeping an eye on Haaland, who he gave his first team debut to at the age of 16 at Molde.
But Cole – who played for both United and City – says Haaland will move to the blue half of Manchester because Pep Guardiola’s side represent a greater chance of silverware.
Haaland had the chance to join United in 2019 (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)
‘To get these guys to come, Haaland for instance, you’ve got to entice them with something,’ said Cole.
‘You’ve got to entice them with the possibility of winning silverware or being a year away from it.
‘If you’re playing and have the option of all these clubs, where would United really figure at this moment in time?
‘Even though I love United, I don’t think the club now can ride on its name alone, especially when you’re trying to bring these players in.
‘It’s not like when I signed for United. We have to be brutally honest, back then everybody wanted to go there
‘We’re talking 2021 now. Does everyone want to go to United now? I’m not quite sure everyone wants to now.’
United are expected to trigger a 12-month extension clause in Edinson Cavani’s contract to keep the Uruguayan at the club for another year.
Nevertheless, Solskjaer wants to sign a striker this summer to fill the position for the long-term and the club remain convinced that Haaland could be that man.
However, United remain reluctant to deal with Raiola – particularly given Paul Pogba is likely to leave at the end of the campaign.
Stephen Hendry makes his long-awaited return on Tuesday (Picture: WST)
Stephen Hendry is producing ‘exceptional’ work on the practice table and is showing plenty of signs of his old self ahead of his return to professional snooker, says his coach and major player in his comeback, Stephen Feeney.
Hendry plays his first professional match since 2012 on Tuesday night when he takes on Matt Selt in the first round of the Gibraltar Open, finally capitalising on the two-year wildcard he was handed at the start of the season.
The 52-year-old has been out of the game for a long time and practiced very little for much of that spell, so there is great intrigue over where his skills stand in 2021.
The seven-time world champion has been working with Feeney and his SightRight methods for over a year now and has been given the confidence to compete once again, with the ultimate goal of a sensational return to the Crucible.
Feeney’s method is based around sighting the ball correctly, which is surprisingly something that many players do not do with some inadvertently aiming to miss pots as they are incorrectly aligned.
He has worked successfully with the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and Dave Gilbert and believes he is managing to ‘put the pieces back together’ of the old Stephen Hendry.
The Scot famously suffered with the yips at the end of his previous spell on tour, but Feeney believes this was down to technical issues that crept into his game that he is capable of fixing.
‘I think it’s fair to say Stephen would score his game 1/10 when he came to me,’ Feeney told Metro.co.uk.
‘We’ve worked on everything around his alignment, his cue action, a lot of things in dealing with perfect sighting alignment, educating the eyes to do the right thing and aim in the right way then certain things build automatically behind that.
‘If you imagine picking up a gun and you’re off-line, if you fire to hit the target, however you’re holding that gun you’re technique is going to move that gun because instinctively you know you’re missing. So when someone’s off-line and badly off-line, you get a lot of movement.
‘Stephen has always known that he had a view of his yips. I put it down to certain technical things that started to happen. I believe he went off-line, technical things crept in and we had a seven-time world champion missing.
‘Some people said it was because he was losing and all sorts of things, but you don’t just become a bad player overnight. If you’re a great player you’ve got to do something wrong and persistently wrong for things to happen.
‘It could even be something as simple as someone putting on weight and losing their natural sighting line, You can suddenly get someone who is used to potting balls at leisure to someone who starts to miss and feel vulnerable.
‘If you’re missing because of technical errors, then that becomes a mental issue but it’s secondary. You lose confidence because you’re missing, so I go to the root problem.’
Hendry’s last game as a pro was a World Championship quarter-final defeat to Stephen Maguire nine years ago (Picture: Getty Images)
Feeney is supremely confident that Hendry’s problems of nearly a decade ago have been cured and the confidence issues that saw him leave the sport have been solved.
Not to say that Hendry will come out firing from ball one on Tuesday night, looking like he could win an eighth world title, but his game has been put back together to reach a point at which he can compete.
‘If there’s anything going wrong technically, a typical character like Stephen will ultimately back off from the game, which is what he did because he couldn’t see how to put things right. But now he’s back he’s beginning to see a different story,’ said Feeney.
‘Back in 2012 lots of things were going on, he made his decision to retire and we’re now in a situation where if he brings 1/10 to me I can put it back together with him as long as he’s got the heart and the drive.
‘His eyes are okay, there’s nothing physically stopping him playing a great game of snooker. The confidence level will start to improve and his composure with match practice will start to improve because he’ll start to trust himself more.
‘I won’t give a score where he is at the minute, but his own comments are that his cue action is better than it was 10 years ago. People kind of pigeonhole me through SightRight to only perfect sighting alignment, but I coach across the whole game.
‘Stephen is learning the ability to strike the ball in a better way and we’re having a fun time and putting in hard work.’
Feeney has worked with a number of top players, not just in snooker but also in golf and darts, and has come across all sorts of different types of students.
However people take to his methods, Feeney always aims to prove what he is doing by allowing his students to do things they have never done before, something that Hendry is finding himself, even at 52-years-old.
‘Stephen just listened and got on with it,’ Feeney said of Hendry’s learning style. ‘Mark [Williams] was the same. You might have another player who asks loads of questions, wants to know the ins-and-outs and detail.
‘With Ronnie…Stephen and Ronnie are two completely different characters to work with in sessions. My job in each and every session is to show them that perhaps they can do things that they weren’t able to do before.
Feeney and O’Sullivan have worked closely in recent years (Picture: SightRight.co.uk)
‘If you’re always raising the bar in their skillset and ability, that creates a different belief in them. “Wow I never used to be able to do that. I’m the seven-time world champion and I never used to be able to do that!”
‘If I said to you, there could be a lot of people that look at Stephen and think, “that’s the same old Stephen.” He’s learned to trust himself with the SightRight methods, to trust himself with the cue action that we’ve built, that we’ve put back together again. I’ve done this with dart players, learning to trust becomes very, very important.’
We saw the first flashes of the new/old Hendry at the World Seniors Championship last August when he reached the semi-final before losing to Jimmy White.
His old rival is as intrigued as anyone to see how he gets on in his comeback and has even been down to help him practice, along with another former World Championship final foe, Ken Doherty.
‘He didn’t play well against Jimmy but I believe that’s a long way away now,’ said Feeney. ‘He’s enjoying playing practice partners, Jimmy’s been down to play him, Ken’s been down to play him. He wants to play.
Hendry and White have been in the practice room together (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I’m not going to say that he’s going to get a bloody nose in Gibraltar at all, but it’s mostly about Stephen getting back in there, finding some composure and enjoying competing.
‘When he played Jimmy White there was just a little lack of composure there, but some of the stuff he’s doing in practice and the work we’ve done on his cue action is exceptional.
‘We know where we’re at, we know what could happen. The most important thing is he goes out there and enjoys it, enjoys the pressure. Pressure is a perspective, but he’s got to enjoy being there and then that readies us for the World Championship qualifiers.’
If Hendry is to return to the Crucible this year he will have to come through every round of qualifying as he sits at the bottom end of the rankings ahead of his return.
Turning up in Milton Keynes this week for the Gibraltar Open is all about getting the match sharpness back in preparation for that task.
‘He needs the race, needs the competitive game to sharpen him up under pressure,’ said Feeney. ‘It’s a completely different world out there, you can play people in practice but it’s never the same until you get under the lights, it really isn’t.
‘Gibraltar is a case of go out, enjoy it, come what may. If he goes deep into this tournament, maybe very deep…come what may.
‘It’s not that we’ve got no expectation, I’ve got every expectation but I also understand we’re playing best of seven, someone could rattle off a few big breaks. Stephen could do that to Matt, Matt could do that to Stephen in a best of seven.’
Steve Feeney helped Mark Williams to his incredible 2018 World Championship win (Picture: Getty Images)
Feeney also coaches Selt, with Stephen and Matt being close friends, which makes the comeback match all the more interesting.
Playing a good pal might just relax Hendry a bit on his return, although both men will know they will never hear the end of it if they lose.
‘I just said to Matt, “it’s a huge privilege, I bet you feel honoured” and he does,’ said the coach. ‘It’s historic, in a way. The first person to play Stephen Hendry coming back on tour.
‘At the end of the day one of them is going to lose and it’ll be street cred, it’ll be all the things that come with it, the banter that will go on and the stories that will be told, but I think Matt feels quite privileged to be the first person to play him.
‘I said to Matt, “all I want to see is you both playing to your best, because you’ll both come off the table happy.” If you don’t leave anything out there then you can’t have anything to moan about.’
No one knows what is going to happen when Hendry gets out there, back into the intense pressure of the professional game, but Feeney is adamant that his legacy is not on the line.
The Scot cannot destroy the immense achievements he has made in the game, in fact he cannot even damage them in the slightest, whatever happens from here on in.
Not that Feeney is expecting that to be a problem, with the coach envisaging plenty of success for the seven-time world champ.
‘Some people are worried about losing his legacy but there’s no reason that his legacy would be anything but completely intact,’ he said. ‘The courage for him to do what he’s doing is exceptional.
‘Stephen wants to really enjoy the game and with the competitive instinct in him, if he’s enjoying the game and learning to win again then we have a man who is back.’
Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand reckons Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a ‘problem’ with his defence (Picture: Getty)
Rio Ferdinand believes Manchester United opting for two holding players in midfield shows Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does not trust his defence and is ‘scared’ to leave them without sufficient protection.
The Red Devils have conceded 32 goals in the Premier League this season – the third highest tally in the top half of the table – and Solskjaer has looked to ease the pressure on the likes of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof by packing the space in front of them.
Fred and Scott McTominay anchored the midfield in United’s goalless draw with Chelsea on Sunday and Nemanja Matic was given the nod in a two-man block for the side’s recent clashes with Real Sociedad and Newcastle.
According to Ferdinand, this tactic suggests there’s a serious ‘problem’ with United’s defensive options which ‘doesn’t make sense’ given the amount of money the club have spent to fix this area in recent transfer windows.
‘If I had one question to ask Ole that would be it. Why do you keep playing two holding midfielders? Why do you keep playing two defensive midfielders in this team?’ the ex-United and England defender told the FIVE YouTube channel.
‘We’re playing with one less player in an attacking position all the time. Other teams have more players attacking against us because of the amount of players they can release to go forward because of the confidence they’ve got in their defenders.
‘I’d love the answer to that question. That would be one of my big questions for him, 100 per cent. Because you can’t spend 80 and 50 odd million for the right-back and for the centre-back, 35 plus for the other centre-back and 30 odd for the other left-back and still be having issues at the back.
‘There’s a problem, it’s not right. You can’t be spending that type of money and still be saying, “I’m going to protect them”, it doesn’t make sense.
‘The best teams in the world don’t get protected like that. Bayern Munich’s team last season, they ain’t getting protected by anybody. You’ve got one holder in there and the others just go off and fly off the handle and play.
‘Manchester City, it’s the same thing. Maybe their protection is that they have more numbers in the middle of the pitch from the right-back and the left-back going in there, but they still have big spaces out wide and are left one-vs-one to defend at the back.
‘United can’t do that it seems. We can’t leave our players one-vs-one on the halfway line. Scared!’
United have conceded 32 goals in the Premier League this term (Picture: Getty)
Ferdinand accused United of going into certain games with a negative mindset and simply trying to avoid defeat against their direct rivals.
‘United against the top six have played seven and won zero. We’ve drawn five and lost two,’ he added.
‘I don’t think it’s as bad as people make out, maybe. When we’re dropping points at Sheffield United at home, that’s more concerning for me. Dropping points like that where you’re expected to go and win.
‘You bully the lesser teams in the league and you don’t lose against the big boys and you try and win the odd one here and there. Man United have still got games to play against the big six.
‘This table of played seven and won none [against the top six] could look very different by the time the end of the season comes if we play against them and beat a couple of them. That’s a big if.
‘You don’t want to lose to teams around you but you do want to start taking more points than what we have. After getting beat 6-1 by Spurs there is going to be that defence mechanism that kicks in as a team. You don’t want to be embarrassed like that.
‘But there has to be a point then where you open up a little bit. You can’t play with the straps on in the big games too much because it becomes something that’s hard to break.
‘I feel like we’ve played not to get beat. Man United of old, you play to win those games.’
United will hope to tighten their grip on second place with victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Wednesday night.
Solskjaer’s men then travel to the Etihad this weekend where they will look to bring an end to Manchester City’s incredible winning streak, which stretches back to mid-December.
Thomas Tuchel remains unbeaten as Chelsea boss after his side’s draw with Manchester United (Picture: Getty)
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said he was confident Chelsea would secure a top-four finish following the club’s goalless draw with Manchester United due to their impressive defensive record in the Premier League so far this season.
Yesterday’s stalemate at Stamford Bridge meant the Blues remained in fifth place and missed out on the chance to leapfrog West Ham into the Champions League qualification places.
However, Thomas Tuchel’s unbeaten record since taking over the reins from Frank Lampard remained intact and Chelsea’s goals against column stands out as the second-best in the English top flight after 26 games.
Only runaway league leaders Manchester City have conceded fewer goals (16) than the west London outfit (25) this term.
Assessing Chelsea’s top-four hopes in the Sky Sports studio following Sunday’s draw, club hero Hasselbaink said: ‘I’m more convinced that Chelsea will make it because at the moment, they don’t get any goals against and that’s a big thing.
‘They only need to score one goal to win matches, they’re not getting counter-attacked that much.
‘Also, they’re not getting goals against in set pieces so in that aspect its good.
‘Against Manchester United they got the best chance in the game and I still believe Chelsea will be in the top four.’
Hasselbaink is confident Chelsea will seal a place in the top four (Picture: Getty)
An upbeat Tuchel said he was ‘absolutely happy’ with Chelsea’s performance against United and felt his side were ‘very close’ to coming away from the heavyweight encounter with all three points.
‘It was a high quality game between two very strong teams,’ the German said.
‘We suffered in the first half but overall it was an even game. In the second half I thought we were really strong.
‘I thought we were closer to winning it, but there was a lot of quality on the pitch. Performance-wise, I’m satisfied.
‘We defended very well in the last line and I’m very happy with that.
‘We were not good enough in the first half to attack the spaces. To find the solution was not always easy and we lost a bit of confidence with some easy ball losses.
‘We said at half-time not to worry. We changed to a 5-3-2 to have higher ball recoveries and to regain confidence, and the boys did that very well. We were very close to winning.
‘We take what we got. I’m absolutely happy. Against a team like Man United you don’t get many chances.’
Chelsea will hope to get back to winning ways and boost their top-four chances with victory away to champions Liverpool on Thursday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s men, decimated by injuries to a host of key players, have looked a long way from their best but will be buoyed by their win at Sheffield United which brought an end to their miserable run of four successive losses in the league.
Paul Merson has revealed Thomas Tuchel’s ‘problem’ at Chelsea (Pictures: Sky Sports / Getty)
Arsenal legend Paul Merson believes Chelsea’s midfield is a major ‘problem’ for Thomas Tuchel and says it is ‘important’ for the new manager to find a solution before the end of the season.
Chelsea have largely impressed since former Borussia Dortmund and PSG boss Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard in the Stamford Bridge hot-seat in January.
The Blues are yet to suffer defeat under Tuchel – recently beating Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie – but scoring goals has been an issue for the team.
Chelsea failed to break down Manchester United on Sunday in a 0-0 draw which saw the club stay fifth in the Premier League, and Merson believes the main issue is the midfield.
He told Sky Sports: ‘The problem is the midfield. Who’s got that defence-splitting pass?
‘When you play Chelsea, everyone’s behind the ball – even Manchester United, a top team, and they sat behind the ball, let’s be honest, and went from a base.
‘You’ve got N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. Between them, I’d like to know how many assists and goals they’ve got. They haven’t got a lot.
‘Kovacic has never scored at home with Chelsea. They dominate a lot of football matches, I like Kovacic, he’s a good player, but you need to kick on.
‘People have got to score goals. Jorginho, take his penalties away… That’s three midfield players who play in a team that dominate a lot of football matches during the season.
‘I mean, that’s amazing. Really, that needs to change. He’s got to change the game when the midfield players are getting in the box and it’s not too negative, when they’re all sitting outside the box.
‘I think in time he’ll have to turn that round but it’s important he does that before the end of the season.’
Tuchel will hope his Chelsea team find their goalscoring touch on Thursday evening when they visit Premier League champions Liverpool.
Milan eager for Chelsea to drop their asking price (Picture: Getty)
AC Milan are interested in signing Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori on a permanent deal but insist they will try to negotiate a lower transfer fee for the player.
Tomori joined the Rossoneri on loan until the end of the season during the January transfer window after failing to secure regular first-team football at Stamford Bridge under Frank Lampard during the first-half of the campaign.
The England Under-21 international started against Roma on Sunday, his fourth Serie A start and fifth appearance overall since joining the club with club legend and current technical director Paolo Maldini pleased with his performances at the back.
Milan have an option to make the arrangement permanent at the end of the season for a fee believed to be roughly in the region of £26m.
The club however will try to get Chelsea to lower their asking price come the end of the season should they decide to extend the defender’s stay.
Tomori started for Milan on Sunday (Picture: Getty)
‘Tomori is a good talent and we have a buy-option clause,” Maldini told Sky in Italy.
‘The price is very high. AC Milan will decide at the end of this season and we will discuss it with Chelsea’s board.’
Tomori recently revealed he has had no contact with Thomas Tuchel, who arrived in west London to replace Lampard shortly after he sealed his move to Milan.
While admitting he has not had the time to think about the defender’s long-term future at the club, Tuchel insists the academy graduate has ‘high potential’ and has not ruled out the possibility of utilising him next season.
‘We will have this talk in the next weeks and months about all the guys who are on loan. But of course, I have a general impression of Tomori, which is that he has high, high potential, but I’m not into details right now. The time will come for that.’
