Soccer Shorts

A roundup of today's other soccer stories in brief.

City get Uefa Cup final

The 2008 Uefa Cup final will be held in the City of Manchester Stadium - but Wembley has been overlooked for the Champions League finals in 2008 and 2009.

Uefa announced the venues for the finals for the next two seasons at an executive committee meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The 2008 Champions League final will be in the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, and a year later in Rome's Olimpico stadium. Wembley had bid for either year.

The 2008 Uefa Cup final will be held in the City of Manchester stadium, and in 2009 in Istanbul's Sukru Saracoglu stadium.

Lennon back soon

Tottenham will have England winger Aaron Lennon back this month as they chase success in the Uefa Cup and League Cup.

Lennon's recovery from his minor cartilage operation is already "ahead of schedule", according to head coach Martin Jol, and he could be back in contention for a return to first-team football in approximately a fortnight.

Tottenham's opening game against Besiktas in Group B of the Uefa Cup on October 19th may come too early for Lennon's return to action.

But the 19-year-old will certainly be available for the League Cup tie against League Two side MK Dons the following week.

Makelele to play on

Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele insists he has no intention of retiring from the game even though his international career will end after France's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. The 33-year-old has finally reached an agreement with his national side over his international future but Makelele is adamant he has no plans to call it a day at club level.

Makelele said: "I came to Chelsea with ambition. I came to work hard. My attitude is I'll play every game. When I'm on the pitch I give 100 per cent every time.

"The day when my body stops, when it tells me it's not possible to give more, I will stop. But now my body is okay, so I go on. I'm fine. I feel the same as before. They tell me sometimes I'm an old man and now I play more from experience."

FA gets BBC evidence

The BBC have begun the process of handing over to the Football Association evidence collected by the Panorama investigation into the game. The Panorama programme made allegations against a number of figures in football, including that Bolton manager Sam Allardyce and his son Craig, a former agent, received illegal payments.

There were also accusations about agents touting players, and that club officials, including Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp and Chelsea's sporting director Frank Arnesen, were involved in unauthorised approaches for players. An FA spokesman said: "We have started to receive some of the information from the BBC and we will now begin the process of studying it."

Lord Stevens, who this week announced that his bungs inquiry will target 39 transfers involving eight Premier League clubs, will be sent any significant evidence from Panorama.

Beckham pay cut mooted David Beckham's future at Real Madrid was thrown into doubt yesterday when the club's sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, warned that the former England captain may have to take a pay cut if he is to remain at the Bernabeu, writes Simon Talbot.

The 31-year-old, whose current deal runs out at the end of the season, has begun the last four Real Madrid games on the bench and was dropped from the England squad after the World Cup. Both sides have expressed a desire for Beckham to remain in Spain but when Mijatovic was asked yesterday if it made sense to grant Beckham a salary increase, he responded: "Who said anything about paying him more? Maybe he will stay earning less."

Real Madrid presented their opening offer last Tuesday, to which Beckham's camp responded with a counter-offer. Beckham's representatives are now awaiting Madrid's response. Both sides have privately described talks as positive but at this early stage it has become clear that reaching an agreement will be a complex process, with initial differences emerging in the valuation of the former England captain.

On January 1st Beckham can begin formal negotiations with other clubs and compromise will be needed if a deal is to be sorted by then. Beckham's representatives are determined to maintain his current salary of £6 million a year but they want him to receive a greater percentage of his image rights in recognition of his commercial value to the club. Guardian Service

Takeover discussed

The West Ham board yesterday met to discuss the latest developments in a proposed takeover. The Premiership club have had to seriously consider the interest from Iranian-born businessman Kia Joorabchian and his backers, who are reportedly ready with an offer worth around £70 million.

However, a source close to both the club and Joorabchian insists ownership is unlikely to change hands imminently.

West Ham have been upset by reports stating manager Alan Pardew has threatened to walk out unless the takeover talks cease.

Five defeats in a row have followed the arrival of Argentinian World Cup stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, a deal which was engineered by Joorabchian. Pardew admits to telling chairman Terry Brown that settling the matter quickly would be desirable.

Barton escapes charge

Joey Barton has escaped a police charge after dropping his shorts in the direction of Everton supporters following Manchester City's 1-1 draw at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Merseyside police have confirmed they have terminated their inquiries into the incident, and will now leave the Football Association to consider any further punishment.

In a statement Merseyside police said yesterday: "Merseyside Police has been in consultation with the FA in relation to the (Barton) incident. The FA will now continue with their own investigation."

The news will come as a relief to City manager Stuart Pearce, who earlier called for a sense of perspective to be applied to any punishment meted out to the midfielder.