Flog - Claridge: Glued.

In all the excitement of the end of season battles, here are some news stories you may have missed in the world of football recently.

FA applauds ‘loving’ fans

As the race intensifies to host the World Cup in 2018, the English FA has praised fans of clubs all over the country for the ‘loving and close relationship’ they have with their teams. National Game representative Dave Henson called on FIFA to look at the recent game between Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace and use it as an example of how the average English football supporter conducts them self, saying how ‘despite one of the two teams going down as a result of the match, it didn’t stop many of the crowd trying to reach one another to shake hands’. However, Henson continued: ‘I’m unsure how FIFA will see it, but knowing them, probably in a bad light. They see any crowd movement as bad, whereas we like to assess the facts and not blindly stab at conclusions’.

Sky Sports discovers new colour

Sensational rumours emerging from BSkyB last night suggest the network’s main sports coverage channel, Sky Sports, has discovered a new shade of colour in time to use it in advertising for the midweek game between Manchester City and Tottenham. A spokesperson said: ‘We had to find a new hue for the game, it’s just too massive to use lime green or pastel blue or something. They worked through Sunday night. As soon as they saw it, they knew it was going to be a huge hit in the advertising world’. Asked to describe the colour, she struggled: ‘It’s like a gold, but less shiny, but definitely more shiny than silver, and white doesn’t quite cover it because it’s so dark, but it’s definitely up there with platinum. It just looks so expensive’.
The colour is now being used in the production of Sky Sport’s tri-minutely adverts for the City v Spurs game on Wednesday. ‘It looks great,’ said Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp, ‘it’s good to see they’ve really concentrated on the coverage rather than the game. People are being paid well for a great job.’

Steve Claridge exclusive

BBC pundit Steve Claridge has revealed how he has been glued to his chair in the Football League Show studio. Asked as to why he always looked so tense and bitter when on the show, Claridge told the News of the World: ‘I didn’t read the small print in my contract, it’s as simple as that. They sat me down on the first week of the show and I’ve been here ever since.’ When questioned why he hadn’t protested the move, the former journeyman forward said he has been told that ‘as soon as Martin Keown makes a mistake’ he will take the hot seat on Match of the Day. ‘By mistake, they told me it could mean either a slip up in words or as soon as the police find the bodies’ Claridge said.