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0 shares 123 View comments Dear West Ham Could you please send me the part of the Olympic stadium that I now own? It seems the Government has given you millions of pounds of public money and, as a result, I have bought a piece of your new arena. I’d like that back, thank you. Can you believe it? British taxpayers have just handed a Premier League football club a stadium worth half a billion pounds which, in these austere times, you might think is charity enough. But not content with that almighty handout, the Government is throwing another £25million of public money in their direction to ensure the interior fittings, including new seats and a roof, are to their liking when they move into their gigantic new council house. New home: An artist's impression of how the Olympic Stadium will look when West Ham move in     More from Des Kelly...

20 shares 34 View comments In all the debate about whether he is an outright fascist or a misunderstood eccentric, one significant question appears to have been lost in the pseudo-political fog. Is Paolo Di Canio any good at his job? Everyone has been so busy wondering if he goosesteps up and down his hallway that they have ignored the more pragmatic concern that he could march Sunderland straight through the Premier League trapdoor. Di Canio may indeed adore Benito Mussolini. He might even strike a quick, straight-arm salute when he catches sight of himself in the mirror. Who knows? Getting shirty: Di Canio is unveiled at Sunderland earlier this week The day job: The Italian oversees his first Sunderland training session     More from Des Kelly...   DES KELLY: Well, nothing lasts forever... it's been a

55 shares 87 View comments There will be swathes of empty seats at Wembley Stadium today, thousands of them scattered around a monolithic arena that cost £800million to construct. The price the Football Association paid for this is all too apparent. It is FA Cup semi-final weekend, a compelling juncture in any season, and yet the image of the day presented to the world when Wigan face Millwall today threatens to be one of apathy and disinterest when it comes to the grand, old competition. The red, plastic spaces in the stands will shout out a message of decline. We will wonder again why the executive tiers are so sparsely occupied and how it takes people in the posh seats around the tunnel quite so long to make it back from their half-time nosebag to watch the game they are  supposedly there to see. Empty: The Wigan v Millwall FA Cup semi-final will have a number of empty seats on Saturday

0 shares 18 View comments There will be runners shifting anxiously from one foot to another under London’s clouds, feeling the flutter of a few more butterflies in the stomach than usual tomorrow. Not that they will admit it. There will be up to a million people gathered by the roadside, smiling and cheering the runners, even as they snatch a glance around them for an unattended bag or a suspicious figure among the crowd. But they will be there anyway. Black ribbons will be worn to show solidarity with everyone affected by the horrifying atrocity in Boston. There will be a silence to remember those innocent people caught up in the bomb and then the London Marathon will surge ahead with an almighty roar of defiance. Defiant: Around 37,000 people will pound the streets of London on Sunday     More from Des Kelly...  

0 shares 149 View comments We know David Cameron should be more concerned about a double dip  recession than a footballer having a double nip. The fact that Luis Suarez munched on a defender’s arm is hardly a subject worthy of a Prime Minster’s intervention and his attempts to play the concerned father moralising about the potential example set to his son would be more convincing if he wasn’t guilty on occasion of accidentally  leaving his child behind in a local boozer. It’s easy to bang on about football and role models. They are highly visible individuals. They attract headlines, adulation and envy in equal measure, while  providing plenty of opportunities for an indignant tut and shake of the head. Centre of attention: Luis Suarez has once again set the news agenda after his attack on Branislav Ivanovic     More from Des Kelly...

0 shares 12 View comments The war against drugs in sport is never-ending and the stakes are higher than ever. Unfortunately many of the participants are, too. The idea that governing bodies in charge of the games people play are genuinely serious about exposing performance-enhanced cheats is something of a myth. We have seen it in athletics, cycling and now horseracing. Organisations love to boast their sport is fair and honourable as they back-slap sponsors, right up to the precise moment when their faces are rubbed in the unholy chemical mess. Then a ‘clean-up’ reluctantly begins. But to avoid the impression their game was filthy all along, the miscreants are usually painted as evil rogues or sad aberrations. Busted: Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes was handed a suspended prison sentence     More from Des Kelly...   DES KELL