Odds & Ends From The World Of Football

• The next leader of the Labour party in Britain, and therefore the next Prime Minister, is a huge football fan. That’s right, Scottish politician Gordon Brown is a Raith Rovers supporter who sold matchday programmes at the ground when he was younger, and followed Scotland during the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

• I finally got a chance to watch the Liverpool against Arsenal FA Cup match from this past Saturday, and watched the first six minutes with interest to see how the coverage was done. Commentator Peter Brackley didn’t refer to the protest at all within the first six minutes despite the fans chanting “Justice For The 96″ over and over again, and the fans in The Kop holding up placards spelling out the words “The Truth.”The TV cameras did pan to show glimpses of The Kop, but Brackley chose not to draw attention to the protest and instead concentrated on the football on display even when after the six minutes was over, the fans stood up around the round and let out a giant and sustained roar. 
• Setanta Sports officially announced today that they’ve agreed a deal with Fox Soccer Channel to sublicense US TV coverage of the Premiership through the 2009/2010 season.
• England is set to launch a new home shirt on February 6. Produced by Umbro, you can see a teaser of it here. Based on the tiny portion of the shirt that you can see, it looks like England may have reverted to a V-neck design.