Roy Hodgson calms clamour for Jamie Vardy to take England’s centre stage

Roy Hodgson has told Jamie Vardy to ignore those urging for him to start in his preferred central position and has said the 28-year-old will have to earn his spurs wherever he is asked to play for England.

The Leicester City striker, the Premier League’s top scorer, has played on the left in the two internationals he has started for his country. His run of goals in the Premier League has led to calls for him to start in the middle for England, but Hodgson was quick to state that Vardy should be pleased to make the squad for the upcoming friendlies against Spain and France regardless of where he plays.

The manager, unveiling a squad that includes the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Eric Dier for the first time, said: “I think Jamie Vardy can play in any of the front three positions. Jamie has only played a couple of games from the start, he should be happy at the moment a) to be in the squad and b) even happier if he makes the team.”

Leicester’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel is among those to have said Vardy, who has scored 11 goals this season, has earned an opportunity to start as a central striker. “He definitely deserves his chance to play for England down the middle and not on the left like he has been doing,” Schmeichel said. “He drags us through and sets the tone every single game. When you have a player like that, he is a dream to play with.”

Cristiano Ronaldo: I want to retire with 'dignity', not in USA, Qatar or Dubai

Cristiano Ronaldo said Friday that he wants to end his career “with dignity” and not playing in “the United States, Qatar or Dubai”. The Real Madrid and Portugal star, the subject of a new documentary that premiered on Monday in London, said Thursday in an interview on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show that he expected to play six or seven more seasons and hoped to finish his career at the highest level. The remarks ostensibly referenced the recent wave of top players who have finished their careers outside of Europe’s top leagues, among them MLS imports Didier Drogba, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa, along with Xavi, the lifelong Barcelona midfielder who signed with Qatari club Al Sadd in May. “That does not mean it’s bad play in the leagues of the United States, Qatar or Dubai, but I do not see myself there,” Ronaldo said. Ronaldo, who turns 31 in February, became Real Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer last month and has th...

Falkirk chairman calls for restructure of ‘outdated’ Scottish league

The format of the Scottish league is outdated and should be restructured with a 16-team Premiership to help boost football in the country, says the chairman of second-tier promotion-challengers Falkirk . Speaking at the club’s AGM, Doug Henderson said the slide of Scottish football, from falling attendances to the poor performance of the national side and their top clubs in Europe, would continue unless steps were taken to change the current system. Scotland were the only team from the British Isles not to qualify for next year’s European Championship and Celtic , Scottish champions for the past four seasons, regularly fail to make any impact in European competition. Scottish football’s top four tiers are currently organised into a 12-team Premiership with three lower divisions each containing 10 teams. “Reflecting economic reality and the need for premier division full-time football, I believe that we must put vested interest aside and reform our lea...

Young people to lose access to unemployment benefits as part of welfare reforms

YOUNG people will not be able to get unemployment benefits until they turn 25 under reforms introduced by the Turnbull Government today. The coalition has unveiled wide-ranging welfare reforms in parliament today, including changes to the Newstart program. It hopes to stop people aged 22 to 24 getting Newstart or the Sickness allowance, and they will instead be shifted to the Youth Allowance payment. This will reduce the amount of money that they will be able to get, costing a single person living away from home about $90 a fortnight. They will also be required to study in order to qualify for the payments. “The key aim of this measure is to provide incentives for young unemployed people to obtain the relevant education and training to increase employability,” according to an explanatory memorandum for the bill. However, it says Youth Allowance does allow students to earn a higher amount of money from part-time or casual work than Newstart, before this begins imp...

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