Soccer Shorts

Morgan gives upBusinessman Steve Morgan has withdrawn his offer to invest £70 million in Liverpool, his lawyer said yesterday.

"Steve has finally lost patience with the Liverpool board using his offer as a stop gap while they scour the world looking for a better one," lawyer Vincent Fairclough was quoted as saying in the Liverpool Echo newspaper yesterday. "He is no longer prepared to be used as a stalking horse."

Liverpool say they are considering several offers to plough money into the club but chairman David Moores hinted he might be ready accept Morgan's bid at the club's a.g.m on December 2nd.

"At the a.g.m., chairman David Moores said it was 'maybe time' to accept the offer," Fairclough said. "However, he and the Liverpool board have since failed to respond, either positively or negatively."

Tevez upsets hosts

Argentina striker Carlos Tevez has immediately walked into controversy after arriving in Brazil to join Corinthians by telling his hosts that he considers Diego Maradona to be better than Pele.

"I know that Brazilians think Pele is the best but I'm Argentine and I think it's Diego Maradona," said the 20-year-old.

Tevez's $18 million move from Boca Juniors to Corinthians is a record transfer between two South American clubs.

No Swiss bankroll

Switzerland's hopes of building a new stadium in Zurich for the 2008 European championship were dealt a blow yesterday when a leading Swiss bank said it would not help finance the project.

The new arena would have cost up to 130 million Swiss francs (€84 million).

The Swiss, who are co-hosting the soccer tournament with Austria, will instead renovate the existing Letzigrund stadium as an alternative venue.

The Letzigrund stadium was already scheduled for a 110-million Swiss franc renovation starting at the end of 2005.

Earlier this year, the city of Zurich said Letzigrund would be ready by the summer of 2007, a deadline set by European soccer's governing body UEFA.

Under the proposal, 5,000 temporary seats will be added to the athletics stadium, bringing it up to the 30,000 all-seater capacity required by UEFA, and thus giving Switzerland the four stadiums that it promised to deliver during the bidding process, which included a joint bid from Ireland and Scotland.

Burns hurt by rank

Scotland assistant manager Tommy Burns has admitted it hurts to see his national team being labelled officially worse than international teams such as Burkino Faso.

The Scots are rated by FIFA as only the 86th best team in the world, below the African nation and others including United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Estonia.

While Burns believes the ranking system to be somewhat flawed, he admitted that the Scottish game was indeed at an all-time low and warned that the rebuilding process may be a long one.

He said: "I don't necessarily agree with how they do that (ranking). I think it is quite bizarre because you can actually go up the rankings without playing.

"But saying that, it still hurts and still looks as though we have a long way to go. It is going to be a long-term thing."

Robert packs bags

Newcastle winger Laurent Robert has admitted that his time at the club could be drawing to a close after his failure to impress new manager Graeme Souness.

The 29-year-old Frenchman said:"The manager has no confidence in me. He says I am lazy in training and tells people I am no good. All the time I am just supposed to sit on the bench. It looks like I am not going to play for Newcastle any more."

Savage admits bid

Birmingham midfielder Robbie Savage believes Blackburn have made a £2.2 million bid for him. The Welsh international admitted a bid has been made, saying: "I think they have, yes."

He added: "It's not for me to say, it's between the two clubs. I haven't created the speculation myself, I haven't phoned every national newspaper saying, 'Blackburn are trying to buy me'. It's not up to me."

Meanwhile, Blackburn manager Mark Hughes has rejected an undisclosed bid from Birmingham for striker Paul Dickov.

In brief. . .

Ipswich Town overtook Wigan at the top of the English Championship after Darren Bent scored an injury-time winning goal. Leighton Baines put Wigan in the lead before Richard Naylor equalised for the home side . . . Barcelona extended their lead in the Primera Liga to 12 points after a 2-1 victory over Levante, Deco and Samuel Eto'o scored the goals that canceled out an earlier Mateu Jofre strike . . . Rangers striker Dado Prso has won the Croatian Player of the Year award for the second successive year . . . The English FA will take no action following the post-match violence which marred Sunday's 1-1 draw between Leeds and Millwall.