Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE family of the Bolton player Fabrice Muamba have posted a picture of him on Twitter from his hospital room – a move which has provided comfort for the Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov who has been diagnosed with acute leukaemia.

Speaking before Saturday's home game against Chelsea, Petrov said that he had taken strength from Muamba's recent battle with ill-health after the player suffered a cardiac arrest during the game at Tottenham.

THE British have a reputation for being efficient and well-organised but don’t be fooled – we can cock it up as well as the rest of the world.

Take the idiots who run our football, for the past few years they’ve been doing their best to devalue the FA Cup, once the most prestigious knock-out tournament in the world.