OVER the past few years we've heard often enough about people trying to help Paul Gascoigne, so it makes a refreshing change to hear about Gazza helping others.
It was announced yesterday that Gascoigne – who has undergone treatment for alcoholism, bulimia and obsessive compulsive disorder – is to return to football in a one-off "all stars" match to raise funds for Darlington after the Coca-Cola League Two
club went into administration in February.
The former England and Rangers midfielder will take to the pitch at the Darlington Arena on 3 May in a friendly fund-raiser, which will see players who starred in Darlington's 1999-2000 season's play-off final team against a side of north-east football stars.
Gazza last played a professional match in 2004 but has reportedly begun training in preparation for the game. His agent Stuart Skinner said the former player was working hard to return to fitness, and was hoping to play "ten to 15 minutes" of the game.
Gascoigne will appear alongside Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate, ex-Sunderland defender Kevin Ball and former Darlington star Marco Gabbiadini.
Old Firm on edge, not eggshellsTHE Scottish Premier League title race looks like being another nail-biter this season and, for sure, it's conceivable that Rangers and Celtic could be neck and neck going into the final game of the season.
But the BBC's Kheredine Idessane was surely over-egging the pudding when he asked Ibrox assistant manager Ally McCoist before last night's games if the Rangers dug-out would be listening to the Celtic-Falkirk match on the radio during their clash with St Mirren.
With seven games of the season left, it wasn't a huge surprise when McCoist said no.
Milutinovic pops up in BaghdadBORA Milutinovic, the only person to have coached five different teams at the World Cup, has landed a job with yet another national team.
The 64-year-old Serbian was yesterday confirmed as the new manager of Iraq and will lead the side at the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June.
Milutinovic's last post was as manager of Jamaica but he left in 2007 following a contract dispute and is best known for leading Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990, when they beat Scotland), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002) in World Cup finals.
The full article contains 398 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
