Football in Brief: England and Wales face fixture lottery
Fixtures for England and Wales' qualifying campaign will be decided by a Uefa draw in Israel next week after all the nations involved in Group G failed to agree on acceptable dates. A meeting lasting four hours and 45 minutes was held in Zurich yesterday, attended by the England manager Fabio Capello and his Wales counterpart John Toshack as well as representatives from Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro. England managed to agree all their fixtures, which included no matches next June, but the rest of the group could not come to a suitable arrangement and the issue has been referred back to Uefa. Football Association officials are unsurprisingly disappointed at the outcome, which will now be decided with a random draw at the Uefa Congress in Tel Aviv.
Way cleared for Pompey to enter administration
Portsmouth return to the High Court today where HM Revenue and Customs will accept their move into administration. The club escaped being wound up last week after HMRC abandoned their claim that owner Balram Chainrai did not have the legal right to put the club into administration. Administrator Andrew Andronikou said yesterday he would set up a meeting with the Premier League later this week, once the issue had finally been cleared up. Pompey now face a nine-point deduction.
Injured Huddlestone signs new Spurs deal
Tom Huddlestone has signed a new contract until 2015, Tottenham Hotspur have announced. The midfielder has made 147 appearances for the White Hart Lane side since joining in July 2005 from Derby County for £2.5m. The 23-year-old has been a regular in the side this season, making 34 appearances and scoring three goals, but is currently on the sidelines with ankle ligament damage, suffered in the 2-1 victory over Everton on 28 February, and has missed the last two games.
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