Jermain Defoe thinks a gruelling pre-season training camp in France helped him break in to England's Euro 2012 squad.

Chelsea new boy Marko Marin believes the London club is "the perfect fit" for him and hopes the man who recruited him, Roberto Di Matteo, is still the man in charge when he arrives.

Howard Webb was stood down from being the fourth official at yesterday's game between Wolves and Manchester United.

Serious concerns about Brazil's preparations for the 2014 World Cup have been expressed by FIFA raising the prospect of transport and accommodation chaos for fans.

Battling 2-1 victory over Bosnia shows signs of coach's plan to reverse 20 years of negative tactics

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque insists the door is still open for Fernando Torres to make the final cut for Euro 2012 despite dropping the out-of-form Chelsea striker from his latest squad.

The legendary Brazilian midfielder, who died yesterday aged 57, believed it was how you played rather than if you won that counted most – as his 1982 side showed

Cape Town seemed a good idea at the time, but ever since Saracens took the imaginative decision to stage a Heineken Cup game with Biarritz there early next year, there has been a fearful row between rival sporting concerns in the South African city – a row that has finally persuaded the Premiership club to abandon the project as a bad job. The fixture will now be played in the less glamorous surroundings of downtown Watford. Oh well.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said yesterday that racism in football does not exist, and that any altercations on the pitch where racist language is used could be resolved by a handshake.

Saracens' much talked-about decision to play their Heineken Cup pool contest with Biarritz in sun-kissed Cape Town, as opposed to – er – wintry Watford, was being talked about even more yesterday as South African rugby officials demanded that the fixture go ahead at Newlands, one of the oldest and most evocative venues in the sport.

Capello has one last shot at redemption in the European Championship

Sepp Blatter has admitted Fifa made "horrific" mistakes as football's governing body became dogged by consistent allegations of corruption over the last year. In a speech in Zurich today Blatter, Fifa's president, will defend the steps being taken towards reform and promise they will deliver telling change.

Football's governing authorities are considering radical new plans designed to force the richest clubs to give home-grown players more of a chance to make the grade.