The English Football Association last night gave Stevenage Borough the goahead to host their FA Cup fourth round tie against Newcastle at their Broomhall Way stadium . . . Middlesbrough manager Bryan Robson yesterday described reports from Italy that Brazilian star Emerson had signed for Italian club Fiorentina for $7 million as "absolute rubbish." Tenerife await developments . . . Aston Villa yesterday gave permission to unsettled midfielder Sasa Curcic to have talks with Besitkas coach John Toshack about a possible move to the Turkish club. . . . Sepp Blatter, general-secretary of FIFA, dropped a strong hint yesterday that he would like to see the 2006 World Cup staged in Africa. Blatter said: "We play the World Cup in '98 in Europe, and 2002 in Asia. Why shouldn't we go to another continent like Africa?" . . . Chelsea's Frode Grodas has accused Ruud Gullit of ignoring him all season and putting his World Cup place with Norway on the line. An angry Gullit retorted with an "either stop moaning or get out" warning . . . French goalkeeper Bernard Lama could be on his way out of Upton Park - without playing a single game for West Ham.
Lama is desperate for first team football to enhance his chances of making the France World Cup squad but Harry Redknapp refuses to drop in-form Craig Forrest . . . Crystal Palace's bid to bring in Celtic striker Tommy Johnson on loan from Celtic was blocked yesterday when the English and Scottish Football Associations insisted that the deal should be for three months instead of six weeks . . . Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger yesterday put a firm block on Ian Wright moving to Portuguese club Benfica - or anywhere else.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)