UEFA Euro 2012 Play-off Draw

Republic of Ireland have landed the ideal Euro 2012 play-off draw as they take on Estonia, while Portugal face Bosnia, Czech Republic play Montenegro and Turkey take on Croatia in a rerun of the Euro 2008 quarter-final.

Games to be played November 11 and 15

Turkey	v	Croatia
Estonia	v	Ireland
Czech Republic	v	Montenegro
Bosnia-Herzegovina	v	Portugal

Jonathan Wilson: Safet Susic calls on Bosnia to find belief for Euro 2012 play-offs

Bosnia must find emotional strength after letting Euro 2012 qualification slip away in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with France.

Ewan Murray: Craig Levein must be given time to lead Scotland from the wilderness

Despite the failure to reach Euro 2012 there were enough positive signs in the defeat to Spain for Scotland to stick with their manager.

Paul Doyle: Hypocrisy not at hand despite Republic of Ireland's slice of luck

The sending-off of Armenia's goalkeeper after the ball struck Simon Cox's arm has brought unfair comparisons with Thierry Henry's infamous double handball two years ago.

FIFA World Cup 2014: Asian ambitions taking shape

Arsenal striker Park Chu-Young left the pitch during South Korea's 2-1 World Cup qualification win over United Arab Emirates looking a little confused. It could have been the clash of heads that required ten stitches or he could have been wondering why, as he is currently the number one striker in Asia, he is unable to get any playing time for the London club.

Tevez facing further punishment

The Argentina international has already given his version of events to City, with the forward seemingly suggesting he refused to repeat his warm up, rather than refuse to enter the field of play at the Allianz Arena.

ESPNsoccernet has now learned Tevez will be given an opportunity to react to City's findings from their inquiry. Conflicting opinions are believed to have been offered by the various players who sat alongside Tevez on the substitutes' bench.

Californication certainly deserves additional punishment...

Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is caught on tape offering 'gifts’ of £25,000 to Caribbean delegates

Telegraph Sport has seen the remarkable footage in which Warner, the controversial former vice-president of Fifa, appears to be recorded telling other members of the Caribbean Football Union members they must decide whether to accept the “gifts” of $40,000 (£25,000) each, and urging them to vote for Bin Hammam rather than Sepp Blatter in the Fifa presidential elections.

International Friendly: USA 0 - 1 Ecuador

Jurgen Klinsmann is finding wins and goals hard to come by in his first few months as coach of the U.S. soccer team. "It's going to take time," goalkeeper Tim Howard said after Tuesday night's 1-0 exhibition loss to Ecuador dropped the Americans to 1-3-1 since the former German star and coach replaced Bob Bradley in late July. "People are going to ask questions, and that's natural. But it's still in the infant stages."

Grant Wahl: Three Thoughts

Martin Rogers: USA impotent under Klinsmann

Player Ratings

Euro 2012 play-offs: the eight teams still fighting for four places, in pictures

Turkey, Group A
Finished: 2nd, 13 points behind Germany

Turkey's 1-0 win over Azerbaijan saw them pip Belgium into second spot in Group A after the Belgians lost 3-1 away to Germany. The Germans finished with a 100 per cent record with 30 points from their 10 games.

The Other Seven

UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying: Danes deny Portugal, France through

Denmark beat Portugal to an automatic place at Euro 2012 with a 2-1 victory in their winner-takes-all meeting in Copenhagen. Samir Nasri's penalty took France to the finals after a tense Paris evening saw them draw 1-1 against Bosnia & Herzegovina. Sweden booked their place after two goals in a minute early in the second period secured a 3-2 victory over Netherlands to qualify as the best-placed second-placed team in all the qualifiers. Richard Dunne was the Republic of Ireland's hero once again as his goal edged them past Armenia as a 2-1 win took them into the play-offs on a night when both sides had a man sent off. Serbia's hopes were ended by Slovenia who took all three points with a 1-0 win in Maribor.

Review

Just who owns Leeds United?

When the House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport began its inquiry into the running of football in December - its brief to encourage supporter ownership of clubs - the MPs did not envisage the spotlight they would ultimately shine on Leeds United.

On 29 July, when the committee finally reported, its members had, according to one of the committee's key MPs, Damian Collins, been "appalled" by what they had discovered.

For six years, between 2005 and 2011, with Ken Bates the chairman throughout, nobody in football knew who owned Leeds United, one of football's biggest and most famed clubs.

Tim Vickery in South America

It's the same teams, three months apart, coming up with a totally different spectacle.

Back in July the Copa America in Argentina was always enthralling, but its fascination was frequently the grim, attritional kind, with defences holding the upper hand.

Now in October, the first round of South America's marathon World Cup qualification campaign produced four open games - at times absurdly so - and 15 goals.

Much of this can be explained by the differing demands of tournament and league football.

African Nations Cup Qualifying: South Africa's sums don't add up

South Africa has a literacy rate of 88%, well above Niger's 28.7%, Sierra Leone's 38% or Egypt's 66.4% but still, they failed to read the rules and were baffled when they were told they had missed out on the tournament. South Africa started off confused, then irate, then despairing and then just plain spoilt brat loser-ish when they decided to appeal to CAF.

Euro 2012: Who needs what in final round of qualifying

England have joined reigning champions Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and co-hosts Poland and Ukraine in qualification for Euro 2012 but five automatic places are yet to be decided.

The Key Fixtures



We take a group-by-group look at who can still qualify, and how they can get to the finals. Head to head record comes before goal difference in this qualifying campaign.

England: West Ham bid again as Olympic stadium deal collapses

West Ham United and Leyton Orient have confirmed that they will bid to become tenants of the Olympic Stadium after the original deal to house the former in the venue collapsed due to legal challenges.

International Friendly Previews: USA vs. Ecuador

When: 7 p.m. EDT
Where: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.
U.S. TV: ESPN2, Univisión, ESPN3.com
Preview

Grant Wahl: Ecuador a tougher challenge

U.S. need offensive jolt

Jonathan Wilson: Tensions rise, sparks fly as Greece, Croatia go their separate ways

Friday should have been a night of triumph for Greece. A 2-0 win over Croatia moved it back to the top of its Euro 2012 qualifying group, and a draw away to Georgia on Tuesday will guarantee the top spot in the group, while Slaven Bilic's Croatian side has to go through a playoff. But the events in the stand that caused the match to be stopped for seven minutes cast a long shadow. None of Greece's 11 national sports papers led with the hooliganism, but these were serious outbreaks, not something to be brushed under the carpet of a satisfactory result.

Uli Hesse in Germany

Later this week, I'll have a reading together with a friend of mine in a city called Hamm. I don't mention this to shamelessly advertise the event, since most of you won't have the means, the time or the inclination to leg it to the north-eastern edge of the Ruhr area on such short notice.

Rather, I mention this reading because of my friend. He is not a professional writer but has already published four books with a fifth in the making. (Gosh, he's got too much time on his hands, doesn't he?) In one way or another, the books all deal with the same football club. My friend is a Schalke fan.

Actually, that's why we're having the reading in the first place.

It's billed as a "literary derby". My friend will read stuff from his growing collection of Schalke-related tomes, while I consider selecting mid-90s pieces that appeared in the first Borussia Dortmund fanzine to go with more recent articles I have done about Dortmund's famous terrace, the South Stand, and the winger Reinhard Libuda, one of the men who played for both clubs.

Roberto Gotta in Italy

It says a lot about the lack of drama during Italy's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign that the most memorable picture from the whole set of matches shows someone wearing a tracksuit and carrying an iPad. Mario Balotelli listened to music while walking around the pitch before the away game at the Faroe Islands, then sat on the bench and left his device locked away somewhere else, only to be accused of concentrating more on his apps than the game while his team-mates were unconvincingly making their way past the hosts thanks to an early goal from Antonio Cassano.

The Trawler: Keane's Homecoming, Tweet Justice

Welcome to The Trawler, your weekly submersion through the teeming waters of life in the Championship, League One and League Two. You might be surprised what you find down there.