91Èȱ¬

The Manchester United PR offensive has continued with the release of a clear and unequivocal statement that .

"The board notes recent press speculation regarding a possible takeover bid for Manchester United," it read. "The owners remainfully committed to their long-term ownership of the club. Manchester United is not for sale and the owners will not entertain any offers"

This is no surprise. A spokesman for the Glazer family has been saying as much for weeks. But planting a formal "not for sale" sign in the middle of their latest set of financial figures is about as firm an indicator as they could give.

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described it as the start of an important journey for European football that would eventually lead to a return of "economic common sense".

In addition, club owners will be limited to investing just £38m in the three seasons after the regulations come in, starting in 2012/2013.

The aim is to create a more level playing field but the impact on England's biggest clubs could be very serious. The super rich owners of Chelsea and Manchester City, for example, will no longer be able to pour in hundreds of millions of pounds to write off losses and buy star players.

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With the interest rate due to jump to 16.25% in August, you would think the Glazer family, Manchester United's unpopular American owners, would be anxious to start paying off their notoriousloans as soon as possible.

But it is understood there are no immediate plans to start using United's bulging cash reserves to pay off the £225m chunk of debt - even though their £500m bond refinancing earlier this year has given them the freedom to do so.

Team building is more important than debt repayment, says a source close to the Glazers.

Now, if this were you or I and we had a mortgage on our house which was costing us more than 16% in interest a year, I reckon we wouldn't waste too much time in paying it off.

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There will have been a collective sigh of relief over at London 2012 headquarters in Canary Wharf after the Treasury announced where the axe would fall in .

In total, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) - the body responsible for building the venues at the - will have to find only £27m of savings.

When compared to the or the huge cuts being made to other government departments, it is a relatively insignificant sum.

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Hugh Robertson says he has three priorities in : Win the , ensure the 2012 Olympics stays on track and .

Noticeable by its absence from this is a plan to sort out English football, even though he told me in an interview on Thursday that the sport's rulers should not "sit there thinking we won't intervene" if the game fails to reform.

Setting aside the World Cup bid, which he says can still be won despite , his failure to include football in his ministerial 'to-do list' will be considered by many as a mistake.

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The period leading up until the end of May will go a long way to determining whether there is a battle for control of this summer.

Although the since its high point in March, senior figures within the camp insist they have not given up the fight.

They are continuing to hold meetings with interested potential investors - including on the evening of 19 May. But they admit putting together a potential takeover offer for the club is being hindered by the complexity of pulling together such a large number of different, wealthy individuals all with their own opinions on how any bid should proceed.

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For something which is ultimately just a bit of fun, organisers of the London 2012 Games are taking the launch of their mascots for the Olympics and Paralympics incredibly seriously.

Most people will not judge the events on the quality of the fluffy toys you can buy in one of the many Olympic merchandising stores between now and 27 July, 2012. What will be far more important will be how many medals Team GB wins, the overall London experience during the Games, the stadiums and ticket prices.

However, the mascot has become significant for London for a number of reasons.

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Amid all the questions raised by there are two interesting issues that need to be cleared up. 

The first relates to the way the story came out. Lord Triesman's resignation statement included a reference to the betrayal he felt at being "entrapped" by a friend. Judging by callers to 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 live, the messageboards and the comments on my blog on Sunday, there is considerable anger at what

I am told that at least one other newspaper was offered the story and turned it down for that reason.

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senior figures on the bid team and inside the Football Association began distancing themselves from damaging claims of collusion between the Spanish and Russian FAs to bribe referees at this summer's World Cup. I will return to this bizarre conspiracy theory in a moment.

Around midday on Sunday, Lord Triesman told colleagues on the 2018 bid board that he would step down.

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With to present their eight kilogramme bid book and , England's 2018 World Cup team undoubtedly won the PR battle in Zurich on Friday.

Unfortunately for them, celebrities and politicians will not be enough on their own to bring what is now arguably the world's biggest sports event back to England for the first time since 1966.

A strong technical bid - highlighting modern stadiums, English football's commercial strength and channelling that cash into a new global fund for the game - is half the battle.

The other half will be played out in hotel lobbies around the world as England's international strategy team - led by former Arsenal vice chairman David Dein - tries to convince the 24 members of the Fifa executive committee to .

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England will promise to deliver Fifa the most profitable World Cup in their history when they present .

The pledge is one of the key messages contained in the 1,752-page bid book which will be presented to the Fifa president Sepp Blatter by former England captain David Beckham.

I am with England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson and other members of the bid team as the book makes its way to in Zurich on flight BA 714.

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The last thing the Football Association would have wanted on the morning that Fabio Capello named his 30-man squad for next month's World Cup in South Africa is a row over his judgement.

But that is what they face after that rates the world's best players, including, critically, his own.

The Italian has insisted the project is not about the money. , one would be tempted to believe him. But if it is not the money then why would you put yourself in that position?

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Former South African president predicted the 2010 World Cup would be the moment when the African continent "".

It was a grand claim from a man of poetry as well as politics.

But with one month to go to Africa's first World Cup, it is evident that such ambitions were never likely to be fulfilled by a sports event, no matter how big and how lucrative.

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Discovering English football live in far flung corners of the world is now no great surprise. Having won a , we all know how popular (and lucrative) the Premier League is around the globe.

But I have never experienced the climax to a League season in quite the surroundings I found myself on Sunday evening as I watched .

Thalebo's Place is right in the heart of the , not as famous as Soweto, but one of the poorest urban areas in South Africa and one-time home to Nelson Mandela.

Inside a packed bar or shebeen, locals watched the climax to the Nedbank Cup quarter-final between Soweto side of Pretoria (Sundowns won 3-1 after extra-time) before switching channels (one of four showing live Premier League games on Sunday) to cheer on Didier Drogba and Chelsea.

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No white elephants - that was the mantra of London's successful Olympic bid.

But ever since London pipped Paris and Madrid in the race for , there has been uncertainty over how the £537m Olympic Stadium would be used once the flame is extinguished.

The 'flatpack stadium', as it became known by virtue of its adaptable design, was originally going to become a 25,000-seater athletics stadium. But organisers scrapped that and ordered a review last July when it became clear track and field alone would not cover the estimated £1m-a-year running costs.

Having allocated £9.3bn of public money for the Games, the idea of leaving London taxpayers with the costly burden of running the venue after the Olympics has caused many an official to break out in a cold sweat.

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