YOU would think that any newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch would be treading very carefully at the moment.

The Australian's media empire is under extreme scrutiny following the phone hacking scandal in the UK and Murdoch himself is seen as having had far too much influence with British politicians over  the past few years.

YOU have to hand it to the suits at the Football Association, they really know how to mess the game up. The latest wheeze from these mindless morons is to arrange for England's most prestigious event, the FA Cup Final, to be moved from its traditional 3pm kick-off spot to 5.15pm.

Now this year's final will be between Chelsea (that's in London you know) and Liverpool (that's in the far north west).

Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE English political scene is currently awash with rows over bankers' bonuses and tax-avoidance schemes for public servants.

Money certainly does make the world go around but there seems to be tiny chink of common sense appearing in professional football.

ONE of the most depressing things about watching the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Stoke City last Saturday was hearing the TV commentator say that the scorer of the only goal, City’s Yaya Toure,  was reputed to be earning £220,000 A WEEK!

City’s win, following their midweek clinching of a place in next season’s Champions League, means that they are guaranteed to splash out even more millions on transfers during the summer as they aim to mop up all the world’s top football talent for themselves.

Football Diary
by Patrick O’Connor

THE BBC football website regularly includes a very funny satirical spoof TV programme called Special 1 TV featuring puppet caricatures of top football personalities.  It is ‘hosted’ by the Special One himself, the Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. Apparently it was Mourinho who came up with the nickname Special One  but the British media adopted it with relish during his trophy-winning spell with Chelsea.