Soccer

Ponte Preta ( 4 – 2 ) Penapolense , Brazil on The 19th of May, 2013 at twenty five past midnight Podcast:

Libertad ( 0 – 1 ) Club Nacional , PAR on The 19th of May, 2013 at twenty past midnight Podcast:

Quilmes ( 1 – 1 ) Newells Old Boys , Argentina on The 19th of May, 2013 at twenty past midnight Podcast:

Hoffenheim avoids automatic relegation

Aldosivi ( 0 – 1 ) Gimnasia L.P. , Argentina on The 19th of May, 2013 at ten past midnight Podcast:

• Italian says Sunderland would have gone down with O'Neill• Notts County racism probe; Monaco to sue leagueI saved Sunderland, says disciplinarian Di Canio Paolo Di Canio is convinced Sunderland would have been relegated had he not replaced Martin O'Neill at the end of March and believes his disciplinarian style of management can bring success to Wearside next season. "I have to be honest, yes, I think we would have gone down," the manager said. "In my opinion this team was down. Some people said I would be too hard and would stress the players but we have recovered mental energy."Sunderland's haul of eight points from six games ahead of Sunday's trip to Spurs has afforded Di Canio a Premier League platform to implement what he terms "the revolution in the brain" required at the Stadium of Light next season. "After 40 years [since the 1973 FA Cup final win over Leeds] can we win another final?" the Italian asked. "I think we can have a magic combination. Only the future can tell if I'm right but I think Paolo Di Canio will be right."While the manager's threat to slash his squad's holiday allowance if he detected any coasting at Spurs has met with some approval, some observers wonder if, like his compatriot Roberto Mancini at Manchester City, Di Canio may be too strict."I don't agree completely," he said. "It's not easy when you've got big egos like Carlos Tevez. With Mancini he had a simple difficulty: he had seven top hot-headed footballers. One or two you can handle, but not seven. Also players are like piranhas. They smell if you are weak. Mancini started something political with the board. The players knew it. They saw a fault-line. It was easy for them to say 'now we relax'. If they think you are weak it will change the dynamic." Louise TaylorCounty face racism probe The Society of Black Lawyers has revealed it has complained to Nottinghamshire police over the alleged conduct of two Notts County youth coaches, who resigned from the club last week following an internal inquiry. Brett Adams and Lee Broster left the club after two players alleged the pair had made racist comments. The Society of Black Lawyers told the BBC it had reported the alleged "racial incidents" to police, and called for "the arrest and prosecution of these two men for racially aggravated public order offences." AgenciesFerdinand set for new deal Rio Ferdinand's future is set to become clearer this week, with the Manchester United defender expected to sign a new one-year contract at Old Trafford. United's new manager, David Moyes, has made securing the 34-year-old an early priority. Manchester City, meanwhile, have handed their left-back Gaël Clichy a new four-year deal. AgenciesVilanova returns to US The Barcelona coach, Tito Vilanova, will return to New York this week for more treatment for throat cancer. The club said surgery had been brought forward after Barça secured the league title. Carles Puyol will be presented with the trophy after match at home to Real Valladolid. ReutersMonaco to sue leagueMonaco have launched legal action against French football authorities after rival clubs threatened to refuse the Ligue 2 champions admission to the top flight. Monaco's status as a tax haven has given the club greater purchasing power than any team other than the Qatari-backed PSG. Paul Doyleguardian.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

It could be time to rehabilitate of some of Scotland's more colourful charactersThere has been a great deal of misunderstanding about Alice Cooper's controversial song I Love the Dead, the last track on his classic 1973 Billion Dollar Babies album. Many have dismissed it merely as an unsophisticated and juvenile attempt to shock by glorifying necrophilia. I, on the other hand, have always thought that it is possessed of far more profound cultural significance.I love the dead before they're cold,Their blueing flesh for me to hold.Cadaver eyes upon me see nothing.The song, I feel, can help those of us who are either contemplating death or who are struggling with the loss of a loved one. Perhaps, too, it gently mocks those who take the business of death and dying far too seriously. As such, Alice's challenging but sensible lyrics would have provided an appropriate soundtrack to a meeting last month of Holyrood's education and culture committee on the regulation of the press. This was the Scottish government's latest desperate attempt to appear relevant in the debate on press regulation post-Leveson. The meeting was simply about adding a couple of splashes of tartan into any royal charter on press regulation decided by Westminster. Under the charter, the Scottish Parliament would, of course, have no say in any amendments to the charter or its dissolution.And lo, it came to pass that in some Holyrood committee room last month, a cadaver of ministers, MSPs and assorted Scottish newspaper editors spent an entire afternoon, which can never, ever be recovered, deciding to insert an amendment to a royal charter. It will, heretofore, be known as the Alice Cooper clause. This would ensure that "appropriate respect and sensitivity was paid to the recently deceased where the only public interest in them was in the manner of their death, and their near relations".The clause is utterly meaningless, vapid and open to such wide interpretation that it could become dangerous in the hands of those who will always seek to hinder a free press: politicians, the police and the judiciary.The amendment is merely a clumsily constructed disguise for what it really is: the beginning of a journey that, if some people get their way, would result in "defamation of the dead" legislation. If Scotland were to become independent, there would be very little to stop such legislation occurring. As things stand, Westminster will simply have a chuckle to itself at the Scots' historic and cultural fascination for matters pertaining to the graveyard.Nor has this come about because Scottish newspapers have a unique tendency to dance on the graves of the deceased. Dear Lord, no. In fact, the obituary pages of Scotland's two mighty broadsheets are among the finest of their oeuvre. It is simply the result of two stories, written more than 20 years ago, by two of Scotland's finest writers, Jack McLean and Meg Henderson, about events surrounding the playground murder of a schoolgirl by one of her schoolmates in Glasgow's East End.In attempting to unravel some of the complicated issues surrounding the case, including sentencing policy, each of these writers inadvertently caused distress to the surviving family of the victim. Neither McLean nor Henderson, each of whom is unimpeachable in their journalistic ethics, did anything that could be construed as illegal or unethical. At worst, they were insensitive and possibly wrong-headed.The sense of outrage of the victim's family may be understandable but what is not is the way that Leveson, Holyrood's culture committee and some Scottish newspaper writers have trashed the reputations of these two fine writers without allowing them the right to defend themselves.I fear now that civic Scotland's desire to be the greatest wee nation in the world for not offending people (dead or alive) may be about to come to fruition. Soon, we may need to rewrite the standard accounts of the lives and deaths of some of our more colourful and edgy char

Jason Solomons meets rising star Marine Vacth and Pelé, Terence Davies signs up Cynthia Nixon – plus the latest gossip from Cannes Send the Marine!Cannes has a great tradition of introducing new sex symbols to the world. Following in the dainty footsteps of Bardot, Deneuve and Paradis comes Marine Vacth (as in "pact"), whose performance in François Ozon's Jeune et Jolie had everyone asking, "Who's that girl?" In the film, she plays a gamine, bourgeois 17-year-old who suddenly takes up prostitution. Vacth followed Kate Moss as the face of YSL perfume La Parisienne having been discovered in a branch of H&M when she was 15. When she did her first undressed shoot, her lorry-driver father sued the magazine and won. In her first-ever English interview, she told me: "My parents now leave me to do what I want. They haven't seen this film yet. But there's nothing they can do about it now." She speaks with a husky, bee-stung pout. "I don't know if I'm a star now," she says. "I'm just me. I know Cannes has a great impact but I don't feel any different. I'm not a new Deneuve or Bardot. I did take my clothes off and I was nervous about that, but François Ozon is not a pervert so I felt I could trust him." Vacht has never trained as an actress. I ask what films she likes and confess to some excitement when she says her recent favourite is Mother and Son by Alexander Sokurov. "I like films that make you think and discuss after," she says. "The female figure and her sexuality is always an inspiration, in art and poetry. So I use that power, why not? It is good to make an impression. That's what I hope to do." You've already done that, Marine.Film Four all seasonsBritish outfit Film Four was in Cannes doing brisk business. Its slate looked as appetising as the lunch it threw. Shane Meadows's Stone Roses doc looks great and I'm tickled by the idea of Wallace Shawn being in Richard Ayoade's new film The Double, which looks smart as a button. But the big draw must be Jonathan Glazer's long-awaited Under the Skin. Glazer is a perfectionist and still hasn't finished the film, which surely would have shone in one of the Cannes selections. The quick trailer they showed looks amazing, with Scarlett Johansson playing an alluring alien, in a dark bob, lost in a nightmare accompanied by a disfigured dwarf. I think we'll see it later in the year, maybe in time for that nice little autumn hat-trick of Venice, Toronto and London.Shock and oarThe Oxford and Cambridge boat race is heading for the big screen again. The film is called Blood Over Water, based on the true story of David and James Livingston, the first brothers to race on opposite crews. Billed by its producers - Joel Mishcon's Tideway Films and Nick Barton's Harbour Pictures - as Chariots of Fire meets The Fighter, it sounds like a tale of sibling rivalry and family conflict to banish memories of Rob Lowe in Oxford Blues, or indeed its predecessor, A Yank at Oxford. With the script by Keith Thompson (whose adaption of musical The Sapphires premiered at Cannes last year), I hear Australian actor Joel Edgerton has already been tempted into the waters and I'm told the film will concentrate on the blood, sweat and commitment of the rowers. With lots of female fans.Martin wee manWith the next instalment of The Hobbit arriving next Christmas, one might have thought its star Martin Freeman was looking to do something, I dunno, taller? However, I hear he'll be starring as an elf in new film Saving Santa. Martin will become the only elf who can save Father Christmas when Santa's HQ is discovered by baddies. The British family comedy also features Joan Collins, Tim Curry and Noel Clarke, playing a white character, named Snowy. I should perhaps add that this is an animated movie.Sex and the poetryTerence Davies has signed up Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon to play Amherst poet Emily Dickinson in a biopic. Davies has written the script to A Quiet Passion, which, I'm told, bursts with wit and one-liners, lik

He is the football manager as celebrity, whose appeal goes way beyond the game. With a return to Chelsea likely, after a turbulent time in Madrid, can he still wield his charismatic magic?Barring any unforeseen twists in the tale, José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix will soon return to his adoring British public with a second stint as manager of Chelsea. While the return of the "Special One" (© Mourinho J) will largely be a matter for celebration in south-west London, there's also a huge and ready constituency nationwide, licking their lips in anticipation of more fun from this much-loved pantomime villain, currently serving his last days at Real Madrid.And, boy, does he need to get away from Madrid. On Friday night, Mourinho described this season as the "worst" of his career, following a 2-1 Copa del Rey defeat to city rivals Atlético. This came at the end of a season in which he had been feuding, it seems, with almost all of the Real squad, and kept Iker Casillas, the Spanish goalkeeper – chief feudee – on the bench for much of the time. Well, he's always enjoyed a drama.For most of us, our first Mourinho Moment came in March 2004, when his Porto team scored a last-minute goal at Old Trafford, to send Manchester United crashing out of the Champions League. Dramatic as Costinha's winner was, it paled next to the unbridled celebrations of his manager. Mourinho ran the length of the touchline before sliding to his knees – to scowls of disdain from Alex Ferguson – and pumping his fist at the shell-shocked crowd. It was to be the first salvo in a decade of lively encounters between the two.José Mourinho was born 50 years ago in the port city of Setúbal, 30 miles south of Lisbon. Football was in his blood. His father, Felix, was capped by Portugal and Mourinho played to a middling level at Belenenses and Rio Ave. Yet it was coaching that caught his imagination. He went to Lisbon's Polytechnic of Physical Education, where he studied sports science and, on graduating, started out on a familiar route into soccer management, coaching Vitoria's youth team back in Setúbal.The 1992 arrival of Bobby Robson as manager of Sporting Lisbon was, by common consent, the game-changer for Mourinho. Starting out as his translator, he quickly earned Robson's respect for the intense detail of his preparatory notes. When Robson left for Porto, then Barcelona, he took his trusted match analyst with him, a journey that ended with promotion, when Mourinho took over as Porto coach in 2002. On arrival, he wrote a letter of welcome – a mission statement – to every member of his squad. It began: "From here on in, each practice, each game, each minute of your social life must centre on the aim of being champions…"In his first season, Porto won the Portuguese league and the Uefa Cup, winning the league again the following year – and then came that memorable 2004 Champions League run. After dispatching Manchester Utd, Porto went on to win the competition outright, an achievement that brought Mourinho to the attention of Roman Abramovich.If we'd thought his Old Trafford celebration was entertaining, it was as nothing compared to his first interview in the Chelsea hot seat. He said that his predecessor, the well-liked Claudio Ranieri, had deserved the sack for "failing". He said that he, too, would expect the sack if he were to fail, but for Mourinho, failure was inconceivable. Why? Because he was special."Please don't call me arrogant. I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one."Mourinho had spoken. The Special One was born.And he was special, or at least different. He set his stall out from the offset, eschewing the arriviste Surrey lifestyle of his Chelsea squad. Rather than an off-plan Oxshott monster-mansion, he moved his family to an elegant Eaton Terrace townhouse in south-west London. Mourinho embraced the capital immediately and fully, defying Ron Manager stereotypes by dining at San Lorenzo and taking his young family to the zoo, the theatre,

Toronto FC ( 0 – 1 ) Columbus Crew , United States of America on The 19th of May, 2013 at midnight Podcast: