If Denmark have a chance of going to the 1986 World Cup Finals in Mexico there is little doubt Olsen will be around if wanted. However he has no ambitions to go into soccer management.

Ronnie Allen - and Presideat Oraa - rebuilt the sliding Athletic Bilbao league side in six short months. It was a football miracle in view of the alarming decline of the club's fortunes since 1956.

The province of Varese is far to the north of Italy, almost a part of Switzerland, a narrow corridor of land sandwiched between Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. 

One of the most popular ideas of the moment it seems is that Brazil have learned the lessons of 1966, modernised their game and are all set to stage a really serious bid for the 1970 World Cup - the Mundial as it is known in Mexico.

Despite struggling so hard to reach the World Cup finals, West Germany present a serious obstacle to England's prospects and progress.

"And Chievo?" All over Italy this autumn, or so it seems, that two-word question is on the lips of football fans, experts and commentators alike.

A few weeks after leading Belgium to a deserved two-all draw against England at Wembley, Joseph Jurion, inside right and captain of RSC Anderlecht, strode out at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels to meet the French and earn his fiftieth cap.

The Italian city of Naples has gone beserk. All because of one man: Diego Armando Maradona.

The Spartak Praha Sokolovo football club is considered to be Czechoslovakia's best at present, but it is true to say that their glory goes far back into the past when it was known as AC Sparta. 

On the final day of last season, Rivaldo scored an epic hat-trick in Barcelona's 3-2 win against Valencia. His last minute winner was an implausible bicycle-kick reminiscent of Pelé's clincher in the film Escape to Victory, the cinematic decoy helped Sylvester Stallone and co escape from a prisoner-of-war camp.

Inevitably the seeds of Dutch football were sown in England. 

Be upstanding and raise your glasses, please, to a Member of the British Empire, and the No. 1 gentleman of soccer, Jimmy Dickinson.

"This Fiorentina side begin to remind me of my Juventus, the one with Platini, Boniek and Paolo Rossi, a team with great individual players capable of winning the match for you at any moment. The fact is that we can't hide it any more, we're now in line to win this championship.

Valencia's unexpected run to last season's Champions League Final proved that even two group stages will not always filter out the troublesome upstart.

Jesse Carver is 90 and living in Bournemouth.

Some twelve cities across Germany will welcome fans to the 2006 World Cup finals - from Hamburg in the north to Munich in the south, from Leipzig in the east to Cologne in the west.

Kevin Keegan was a remarkable footballer whose dedication, enthusiasm and spirit drove him to achievements way beyond those of perhaps more gifted but less committed stars.

On a recent Monday afternoon, Roma and Italy playmaker Francesco Totti was out about town, enjoying his day off with his girlfriend, Maria Mazza.

At 11.20 on the night of Wednesday, May 9, Milan president Giuseppe Farina called for champagne and ended one of the most extraordinary transfer sagas of Manchester United's eventful history.

Brescia is not quite what Pep Guardiola had in mind when he decided, last June, to wait for the right club in the right city before picking up the threads of a career cast off in Barcelona.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same...

Over the years many, many people have tried to put an adequate label to the game of football.

To Argentinians, I'inchas who follow their favourite club week after week, football is an art.