An artist’s impression of the proposed facilities in east London for the Olympic games in 2012. Photograph: Andrew Hilton/Hayes Davidson/PA

The organisers of the 2012 London Olympics face the toughest economic circumstances outside of a state of war to put on the games, an influential member of the International Olympic Committee has said.

Kevan Gosper, an Australian who is the head of the IOC’s press commission, gave the warning to Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the 2012 organising committee, at a question-and-answer function in the capital yesterday.

…click here to read more

Barnsley’s Iain Hume. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/Empics Sport/PA Photos

The Barnsley striker Iain Hume was last night readmitted to hospital two weeks after fracturing his skull in the derby game against Sheffield United. The 25-year-old Canada international was released from hospital seven days ago and has since been recovering at home, but spent last night at Salford Royal as a precaution after complaining of feeling unwell.

“He went back in last night because he was feeling sick,” a Barnsley spokesman said. “He began feeling unwell after spending time at home and we hope it’s a case of better safe than sorry.” A later statement from the club revealed that Hume had contracted an infection but had been prescribed a course of antibiotics. “He will mostly likely spend tonight in hospital purely as a precaution and should be back home on Wednesday.”

…click here to read more

AZ Alkmaar and Ajax thrash around in the snow during their Dutch league match. Photograph: Olaf Kraak/EPA

Rather than tackling pertinent problems such as video-replays for referees on offside goals, football’s executives think it best to distract us by solving non-issues on the periphery of the sport instead. National B-squads for example. Once a fixture of international football, they’ve fallen largely into disrepair, and for good reason. They are useless.

…click here to read more

Alan Pardew departed The Valley after a stinker against Sheffield United. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/EMPICS Sport/PA Photos

What wasn’t to like about the weekend? Australia’s rugby league players were thrashed by the Kiwis in the World Cup final, temperatures across the country soared to a balmy –37C and Oasis finally broke America by standing behind Ricky Hatton after he won in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.

Despite all that, cheer was in short supply at what should have been a zinger of a match at Glanford Park, where Leicester City and Scunthorpe United battled for bragging rights at the top of League One. Leicester won 2-1, but their manager, Nigel Pearson, didn’t sound too happy. “It was an important win for us but it is just a win and I don’t want to talk it up any more than that.” Pearson may well be justified in his caution: his team were booed off the pitch a few weeks ago, after all.

…click here to read more

Lin Wen Tang celebrates after winning the Hong Kong Open golf tournament. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang bounced back from a final-hole blunder to edge a thrilling play-off and win the Hong Kong Open — his first victory on the European Tour. The Asian Tour regular missed a birdie putt from six feet on the 72nd hole of regulation play and was forced into a three-way play-off with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari of Italy, who all finished 15 under par.

…click here to read more

Ricky Hatton with his trainer Floyd Mayweather Snr. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

Ricky Hatton was rightly pleased with an improved performance in beating Paulie Malignaggi and restoring much of his reputation.

But it’s way too early to get carried away. Victory at the MGM Grand Arena this morning over an opponent whose tricks evaporated under sustained pressure keeps Hatton in line for a huge payday in the UK next summer, against the winner of the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight in the same ring on 6 December.

…click here to read more

The decline and fall of William Gallas, ex-Arsenal captain. Photographs: Lee Mills/Action Images (whose entire portfolio seems to show Gallas in distress).

3pm: Peeps ring out across the country and We. Are. Go.

2.50pm: It’s a shambles. Again. We just had a power failure here on two computers and a telly, which means Paolo Bandini is having to muddle through a rugby minute-by-minute without television pictures OR any idea about rugby.

…click here to read more

The four faces of contemporary male modelling: Derek Zoolander (pose: Blue Steel), Tom Lutz (???), Scott Murray (???) and Carlos Tevez (WTF?). Photographs: Melinda Sue Gordon/Christian Sinibaldi/Sam Frost/Tom Jenkins

Some links

• Some footage the two Serbian wunderfoetii apparently set to join Manchester United

• Highlights of a classic encounter between these sides in 1994, infused with genuine poignancy by the identity of Manchester United’s keeper.

…click here to read more

Liverpool’s Andrea Dossena and Diego Cavalieri collide at White Hart Lane during another miserable performance. Photograph: Tom Hevezi/AP

Thanks for all your submissions for the third round of Big Blogger 2008. We had nearly 100 entries this week, but - surprisingly - the standard was the lowest so far. We were hoping for ballsy comment, originality and flair; we largely ended up with one-paced match reports that rarely deviated from the obvious. The difficult question is why: the standard of most blog responses to normal articles is usually decent, after all.
…click here to read more

Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP

Australia led by 189 runs at the end of the second day of the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba, but again struggled with the bat on a day when 16 wickets fell. The hosts were reduced to 131 for six at stumps having dismissed New Zealand for 156, and the tourists maintain a foothold in the opening match of the two-Test series.

The Australian bowler Mitchell Johnson took four for 30 to help skittle New Zealand early on but the tourists’ bowlers also dominated, cheaply removing Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey before Simon Katich (67 not out) notched a gutsy half-century to partly repair the damage. Chris Martin (three for 52) was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers, grabbing the late wickets of Andrew Symonds (20) and Shane Watson (five) to ensure that New Zealand finished the day on a high.

…click here to read more