Since losing his job following the squadra azzurra’s uninspired showing at UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, Roberto Donadoni has found solace in nature. According to the Roman daily Messaggero, the coach, who hails from the Lombardy region, has purchased a 22-hectare farm near the port of Brindisi in the southern Italian region of Apulia, where he and his wife Cristina Radice intend to produce olive oil. The pro¬perty is said to have cost 1.3 million euros. The rebuilding work required, which is already underway, will set them back another 700,000 euros – expensive consolation indeed for world champions Italy’s quarter-final defeat to eventual EURO winners Spain on penalties and his subsequent replacement by FIFA World Cup™ winning coach Marcello Lippi.

Terry Butcher was an England centre-half for ten years. He won 77 caps, took part in three FIFA World Cups™ and was considered by many England fans to epitomise everything they hold dear about the Three Lions. The picture of his bandaged head and blood-soaked shirt in the FIFA World Cup™ qualifier against Sweden in 1989 remains among the most iconic in English football history and cemented his status as a legend among supporters. When Butcher retired from international football after the 1990 FIFA World Cup™ and left Rangers to become player-manager at Coventry City, he was immediately singled out as a future England coach. However, instead of a rise to the top, there followed an eventful and at times turbulent club career in charge of Coventry City, Sunderland, Motherwell, Sydney FC and Brentford. Now the former England captain is back in Scotland as second in command to former Ipswich Town team-mate George Burley, with whom he will be trying to ensure Scotland qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. “It’s amazing really. I would never have expected it,” he said of crossing
the divide in football’s oldest rivalry. “But I’ve spent so many years here in Scotland, even after my career finis¬hed, and I really do love the place. I’m proud to have this job and, if anything, I see it as a chance to pay back some of the kindness and hospitality I’ve been shown since coming here in 1986. The task is to take Scotland to the World Cup and I can see that there’s a spirit and ability within this group that gives us a real chance.”

In Mexico City, a look-alike of Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has been causing some confusion. The English comedian Derek Williams visited the city pretending to be Eriksson, Mexico’s new coach. For a long time, nobody picked up on the hoax. When Eriksson’s doppelganger turned up at the national stadium, he duped everyone into thinking he was the Swede. Not even the fact that he was accompanied on his tour of the stadium by two young women raised any suspicions. Williams took the prank too far by chatting briefly with Ricardo Ferretti, coach of Mexican first division club UNAM, and allowing himself to be photographed. “Eriksson” explained that he had come to look at some of Feretti’s players, who were training in the stadium. Williams had apparently sent forged documents to the Mexican association to enable the hoax. Immediately after Williams’ cover had been blown, the Mexican association issued a press statement claiming the stunt had shown “a complete lack of respect”.