Uefa’s clubs committee has given the green light to a proposal by the Arsenal

Uefa’s clubs committee has given the green light to a proposal by the Arsenal chief executive David Dein that the end of the ground at which shoot-outs take place be decided by the toss of a coin, with the winner choosing either which goal to use or to take the first kick.. Football League clubs face cuts to wage levels and squad sizes after backing proposals yesterday for a salary cap in an attempt to arrest the financial crisis in the lower divisions. The self-imposed move, which must still be formally adopted, is seen as virtually the only way to ensure the survival of many clubs, and will make life harder for most lower league players.Some 500 professionals were struggling to find a club this summer and that figure is set to increase markedly as clubs have to make major savings to fit within these intended budget restrictions. A move for a similar, albeit voluntary, system has already been made by members of the G14 group of ?te European clubs, but they have also given their teams a couple of years in which to phase in the development.Given the financial predicament in which several clubs find themselves after the collapse of the ITV Digital deal, the Football League plans are rather more urgent and could even come into effect at the start of next season.

That is against a background of only a handful of clubs currently meeting the guideline percentage rate, with many others being hopelessly adrift of the intended level. In 2001-02 the percentage of total wages compared to turnover among First Division clubs was 101 per cent, meaning they were already making a loss before meeting any other costs.. It was deep in the night in Baku Airport, there was a six-hour flight ahead and he had given an immense performance in a match Wales had to win, but John Hartson still appeared utterly fresh, his mind alive as he leaned back on a plastic chair. It helped, too, that his manager, Mark Hughes, had kept his team on British time, so that what was 11 o’clock at night appeared more like seven in the evening. But it was the future which really excited a Swansea boy, who was barely a year old when Wales last created international headlines by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1976 European Championship.”We are looking to win every game.

The fans want it, the manager wants it – even in Italy the fans will go over there and expect us to get a result. Four or five years ago, Wales going to Italy would not have been given a cat in hell’s chance.”Hartson said that Wednesday’s 2-0 victory in Azerbaijan, which put Wales five points clear at the head of their European Championship qualifying group, would not properly sink in until he saw it in the morning papers back home. But he acknowledged that the swelling expectations in the Principality, where schools stopped lessons early to watch a broadcast of the match, created their own dangers.When they were drawn in the same group as Italy and Yugoslavia, Hughes’ team would have been quite happy to have finished second and take their chances of going to Portugal via a play-off. However, having raced into an early lead, Hartson acknowledged that anything less than automatic qualification would be regarded as failure. Should they have to settle for the play-offs, it might have an unsettling and demoralising impact.”Schools in Wales being given time off to watch the match – that got a mention in the changing-room,” he said “Little things like that help. I was down in Swansea on Saturday and people were coming up, winding down car windows, and saying: ‘Good luck’.