Football: Laudrup will join Chelsea in summer

BRIAN LAUDRUP will join Chelsea on July 1 after agreeing a three- year contract with the Premiership club. The Danish forward will remain at Ibrox until Rangers have completed their League programme.

Laudrup is out of contract in the summer and the move will cost Chelsea nothing other than a signing-on fee. The 29-year-old had been previously linked with Ajax, where his brother, Michael, plays.

The Dane said he had been so fed up about the constant rumours about his future he had considered returning home and joining FC Copenhagen. He had also had "serious discussions" with Paris St-Germain. "I want to play in the English Premiership and that is what attracted me to Chelsea," he said. There were reports yesterday that Gianluca Vialli, Chelsea's player-manager, wants to sign his former Juventus team-mate, the French midfielder Didier Deschamps.

A former Chelsea player, Australia's coach Terry Venables, has been offered a new contract by Soccer Australia, the country's ruling football body - but is undecided about committing himself to the Socceroos.

Venables has been offered a position as coaching supervisor for the Australian team for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He said: "We are still talking and I've told David Hill [Soccer Australia's chairman] I will not be looking at any offers until I've spoken to him."

One place he will not be looking for a job is financially troubled Portsmouth. The directors at Fratton Park have blamed Venables, their former chairman, for the club's plight, but the former England coach said: "They're crying like babies now that it's going wrong."

Craig Brown, the Scotland coach, has confirmed that Scotland will travel to the United States to complete their World Cup preparations. They will face Colombia on 24 May in New Jersey and the States on 30 May in Washington DC. The former Celtic manager, Tommy Burns, will take charge of the B squad to play Wales on 24 March.