Andre Villas-Boas, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, has been assured that Steven Caulker is ready to play this weekend despite charges from Serbian police hanging over the defender.

The threat of two England Under-21 internationals and one of the team's coaches being charged with criminal offences, following last month's stormy clash with Serbia in Krusevac, has forced the involvement of the British government. Last night, the Foreign and Commonwealth office said: "We are investigating the full details of the charges before considering our response. The British embassy to Belgrade is liaising with the Serbian authorities on this as a matter of urgency."

Novak Djokovic crashed out in the second round of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris to American Sam Querrey today.

Serbian police have charged two England Under-21 players and one of the team's coaches following this month's stormy European Championship qualifier.

When I visited Borko's 15th floor flat in Belgrade, I commented on the stunning view from his rooftop terrace. He laughed: “Yeah it was a great spot to watch the Nato air raids too.”

Ugly under-21s episode could bring jail terms but FA and government set to defend accused with government to defend

The FA will stand by Danny Rose 100 per cent despite renewed calls from the Serbian FA to punish the player after it itself handed out a total of four bans today for the ugly scenes which marred last week's Under-21 match.

The Serbian football association has banned two Under-21 players for a year following the unsavoury scenes at the end of this month's European Championship qualifier against England.

Christopher Samba makes a return to England tonight with the former Blackburn Rovers defender lining up with new club Anzhi Makhachkala at Anfield to play Liverpool in the Europa League.

Michel Platini has written to minister for sport Hugh Robertson to express his dismay at the “disgraceful” scenes that followed England Under-21's win in Serbia last week.

Talks about setting up a black footballers' association have begun involving players from all levels of the game, a human rights lawyer involved in the discussions has confirmed.

Arsene Wenger has come out against the proposed formation of a break-away group to combat racism in English football.

Muslims have defeated a bid to put a Serb mayor in control of Srebrenica for the first time since the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims there by Bosnian Serb forces. The Serb candidate represented a party that disputes a UN ruling that the mass slaughter of Muslim men and boys constituted genocide.

This is not the kind of thing a white man should say. But Jason Roberts seems to have got it wrong on racism. The black footballer has called for a boycott of this weekend's anti-racism Kick It Out protest. He feels it has not been vigorous enough in its response to abuse in the game.