Soccer

• Fans had planned giant mosaic of Champions League trophy• Wembley deems it would breach health and safety rulesBorussia Dortmund supporters will be prevented from unfurling a mosaic of the Champions League trophy at Wembley before Saturday's final against Bayern Munich due to health and safety fears.Dortmund's fans are renowned for their imaginative choreography but Uefa and Wembley rules mean a banner cannot be passed between the seats in level one of the stadium and the corporate section in level two, where members of the "Uefa family" will sit.Wembley officials said they have tried to accommodate the requests of both sets of supporters for the showpiece game, the second time the Champions League final has been held at the ground in three years, but could not guarantee that spectators in the corporate seats would take part in any partisan activity.So it was deemed that Dortmund's choreography would breach health and safety conditions, while the gradient of the seats in level five of the stadium is too steep for a giant flag to be unfurled.Daniel Lörcher, a Dortmund supporter-liaison officer, said: "It is very sad for our supporters, there are a lot of regulations and it isn't possible to do a good choreography. We won't do a bad one so it's cancelled. In the middle of the standing area there is the VIP area for non-supporters, if you can't do the choreography here you can't do a whole build. They were planning flags, papers and a whole picture of the trophy."They didn't finish their plans, they bought material and flags, but they can use it next season for a home match. It's really sad, it's the biggest game for them and they can't do a choreography. There are problems in London that aren't so big here."Dortmund supporters will still carry flags and wear yellow shirts to bring a "yellow wall" from Germany to London.Bayern Munich, meanwhile, will attempt a choreography despite the red tape at Wembley, although their fans admitted there were a number of "hurdles" to overcome and that "the conditions for a successful choreography are catastrophic".Borussia DortmundChampions LeagueWembley stadiumJames Riachguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Liverpool will move for Manchester City defender Kolo Toure on a free transfer once his contract expires in June.

Lionel Messi looks back at a difficult year for Barcelona, albeit one in which the Catalan side won La Liga

The Ligue 1 champions are determined to keep their star players on board and have not yet given up hope of holding on to their coach either Paris Saint-Germain sporting director Leonardo has stressed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva will remain with the club – regardless of whether or not Carlo Ancelotti joins Real Madrid. The Italian has told PSG that he wants to leave after los Blancos approached him to replace Jose Mourinho, but Leonardo has insisted that the future of Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva is unrelated to that of Ancelotti. “Neither Ibrahimovic, nor Thiago Silva will leave the club if Ancelotti moves on,” Leonardo told L’Equipe. Meanwhile, Thiago Silva’s agent Paulo Tonietto has ruled out a summer move, too. “There’s zero chance that he will leave this summer. PSG do not want to sell him. He’s an important part of their project and he will stay put regardless of what will happen with Ancelotti,” Tonietto told RMC. Leonardo then went on to make it clear that les Parisiens still hope they can convince Ancelotti to spurn Madrid’s advances. “We hope that Carlo will change his mind. I fully understand that when a club like Real Madrid states an interest, a coach will think it over. “Ancelotti has always had the unconditional support of this club and when an offer from Real Madrid comes in, it’s a challenge for us. The best way to handle these matters is by sitting down to discuss them.” Ancelotti took charge of PSG in December 2011 and guided them to their third-ever Ligue 1 title this season.

We've crunched the numbers from the 2012-13 Premier League season and tasted statistical goldWith Fergie Time finally over for good, it feels appropriate that Manchester United's powers of recovery have never been as strong as they were this season. As Sir Alex Ferguson was fond of saying, they never make it easy for themselves, and United conceded the first goal 11 times before the turn of the year and 15 times overall. They have arguably not sailed this close to the wind since winning the Treble in 1999 but their bouncebackability meant that the champions won 29 points from losing positions, which is a new Premier League record, beating the 24 points set by Sir Bobby Robson's Newcastle side in the 2001-02 season.Surprisingly, though, United do not lead the way when it comes to goals scored in the 90th minute. Along with Arsenal, Reading and Wigan, they made life difficult for match reporters five times, while Newcastle scored six goals in the 90th minute. Alan Pardew mainly has Papiss Cissé to thank for the late drama, the Senegalese forward snatching last-minute winners against Fulham, Stoke and West Bromwich Albion. Robin van Persie also left it late three times this season although only two of his goals – the ones that earned United victories at Manchester City and Southampton – were as vital as Cissé's. The other was the second in a 2-0 win over West Brom.With the minimum amount of fuss, Van Persie got it done and his effectiveness is emphasised by the 65 shots he hit on target, although that was not quite as many as Gareth Bale (73) or Luis Suárez (72). Suárez also hit the most shots off target (71), while Michu (54), Olivier Giroud (50), Cissé (45), Nikica Jelavic (41) and Andy Carroll (41) all troubled the fans behind the goal more than they worked the opposition goalkeeper. Of course, it is possible to read too much into that stat – after all, Michu scored 18 goals in the league for Swansea.Michael Laudrup had less success with Itay Shechter, though. The Israeli striker managed four shots in his 621 minutes on the pitch, a shot every 155.3 minutes. Cameron Jerome, meanwhile, had the worst shooting accuracy (21.7%), while the sadly departed Mario Balotelli had the worst shot conversion rate with one goal from 26 efforts (3.9%). As for Reading's Jason Roberts, he holds the dubious honour of being the striker to have played the most minutes (709) without scoring. At least Adam Le Fondre set a new record by scoring eight times as a substitute for the Royals.Perhaps (this could be a pipe dream) Reading would have stayed up if they had Christian Benteke (it's a pipe dream). Who knows where Aston Villa might have ended up without the Belgian striker? He scored or assisted 49% of their goals, more than any other player for a single side – by contrast, United had 20 different scorers, a record in a Premier League season.Arsenal's Lukas Podolski was the league's most substituted player, being taken off 23 times, while Everton's Leighton Baines was the only player to feature in every minute. His output was prodigious, too; Baines created 116 chances this season, 12 more than any other player. Mind you, what constitutes an assist is a grey area. West Ham's Matt Jarvis was the player who created the most chances (46) without actually making one that resulted in a goal. Yet is this a failing on his part or because of his team-mate's shortcomings? And is it really fair that Steven Gerrard heading a Jarvis cross into his own net doesn't count? Or that a Jarvis cross that was headed in by Carlton Cole should be ignored because of a slight deflection off César Azpilicueta?However, as Opta explain here, an assist is only awarded for a final pass or cross that leads to a goal, so deflected passes, own goals and winning penalties or free-kicks are unfortunately out. It does mean, though, that Andy Carroll was awarded an assist for inadvertently blocking a clearance by Reading's goalkeeper Alex McCarthy into the path of Kevin Nolan on Sun

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By Chris Wright Bayern Munich have press-ganged the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Lorin Maazel into producing the club’s official song for their upcoming appearance in the Champions League Final at Wembley on March 25th, and presumably didn’t give them an awful lot of time to come up with a finished product. We say that as it would appear  the best the MPO could apparently cobble together in the time they were given is just “God Save The Queen” and “Zadok The Priest” (otherwise known as the Champions League anthem) spliced together in the middle! They really should have just gone with this perennial classic from Alan & Denise instead… Imagine that blaring out as Bayern take to the field! There’s simply no way they could lose after having their chests swelled by such a stone-cold masterpiece of song-smithery.

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