Johan Cruyff mengaku telah yakin siapa pengganti yang layak jika akhirnya pelatih Barcelona Pep Guardiola meninggalkan Camp Nou.
Guardiola memang menyukai kontrak tahunan, dan meskipun ia belum menyatakan komitmennya untuk musim depan, banyak pihak yakin setidaknya Guardiola masih akan bertahan satu musim lagi.
Namun, Cruyff ternyata sudah menyiapkan pengganti yang cocok.
"Saya sudah jelas siapa yang layak menggantikan Guardiola dan saya telah mengatakan sosok orang itu kepada orang-orang terdekat saya," kata Cruyff kepada kantor berita EFE.
"Tapi dia bukan Mourinho," canda Cruyff.
Cruyff memilih Rijkaard dan Guardiola dalam perannya sebagai penasihat mantan presiden klub Joan Laporta, tetapi kini, perselisihannya dengan Sandro Rossell, yang mencabut gelar presiden kehormatan milik Cruyff, membuat saran Cruyff belum tentu didengarkan Barcelona.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Gabungan pemain-pemain timnas U-23 dan timnas senior bakal melayani LA Galaxy AS, yang dimotori David Beckham. Sebanyak 21 pemain dipanggil bergabung. Dari jumlah itu, 11 pemain dipanggil dari tim nasional yang berlaga di ajang SEA Games 26 lalu.
Sedangkan untuk pelatih dipercayakan juga pada Rahmad Darmawan yang menangani timnas di SEA Games 26. Dua pemain naturalisasi asal Pelita Jaya, Greg Nwonkolo dan Victor Igbonefo juga dipanggil bergabung.
Kedatangan Beckham cs dipromotori Mahaka Sports dan Brown Sports. Rencananya, Beckham dan rombongan Galaxy tiba di Jakarta 28 November 2011. Beckham dan rombongan akan melakukan meet and greet dan coaching clinic sebelum bertanding melawan timnas pada 30 November mendatang.
Berdasar rilis yang diterima Republika, inilah skuad timnas yang bakal menjajal kekuatan LA Galaxy;
Pelatih: Rahmat Darmawan
Timnas U-23: Kurnia Meiga, Andritany Adhriyasa, Diego Michiels, Abdul Rahman, Hasim Kipuw, Mahadirga Lasut, Egi Melgiansyah, Okto Maniani, Andik Vermansyah, Patrich Wanggai, Titus Bonai
Timnas Senior: Firman Utina, Ahmad Bustomi, M. Ridwan, Cristian Gonzales, Boaz Salossa, Hamka Hamzah, Bambang Pamungkas, Greg Nwonkolo, Victor Igbonefo, Zulkifl
Chief sports writer in Daegu, South Korea Ennis, Idowu and Farah are all gold medal hopes for Britain in Daegu
The World Athletics Championships in Daegu have begun with Kenyan athlete Edna Kiplagat claiming the first gold medal in the women's marathon.
Policewoman Kiplagat encountered a false start and a fall at a drinks station but recovered to win ahead of compatriots Priscah Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop in a time of two hours, 28 minutes and 43 seconds.
Saturday's morning session began well for Britain, Barbara Parker making it through the 3,000m steeplechase heats and Andrew Osagie qualifying comfortably from his 800m heat, although European silver medalist Michael Rimmer, struggling with injury, went out.
Steve Lewis also qualified for Monday's pole vault final as his training partner, Australia's reigning champion Steve Hooker, crashed out after three failures at 5.50 metres.
Two years ago in Berlin a British team weakened by injury brought home six medals, including two golds and 11 personal bests - the country's best return since 1999.
But this time head coach Charles van Commenee wants at least one more from his 66-strong squad, with the reigning world champions Jess Ennis and Phillips Idowu joined by Mo Farah and Dai Greene as genuine contenders for gold.
Giant posters of Ennis are everywhere in the city of Daegu, dwarfed only by those featuring the biggest star the sport of athletics has ever seen: Usain Bolt.
Bolt begins his title defence at 1425 BST in heat six - where he runs alongside Britain's Dwain Chambers.
Injuries to Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell may have robbed Sunday's 100m final of the rivalry track and field fans so desperately wanted to see, while Bolt's form this year means we are unlikely to witness a repeat of his flabbergasting, record-breaking 9.58 seconds in Berlin.
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Ennis inspired by British legends
But as the hundreds of Korean girls who greeted his appearance in a city mall with Beatlemania screams demonstrated, the fastest man in history has an impact like no other. For Bolt to fail to repeat his 100m/200m sprint double of the last two major championships would be a shock of global proportions.
In his shadow, better rivalries may come from Liu Xiang, David Oliver and Dayron Robles in the 110m hurdles, as well as Sanya Richards-Ross, Allyson Felix and Amantle Montsho in the women's 400m.
Younger stars may emerge in the shape of Grenada's 18-year-old 400m sensation Kirani James, coming names like David Rudisha and Carmelita Jeter may imprint themselves on the sporting world outside athletics even as old rogues like Justin Gatlin and LaShawn Merrit return from drugs bans to remind the sport of the problems it faces.
For the British team it is all about delivering on form and potential.
If Van Commenee's talk of a 'golden generation' to match that of Sebastian Coe, Daley Thompson and Tessa Sanderson at the 1984 Olympics is a little unfair - the Los Angeles Olympics were a Games denuded by the Eastern Bloc boycott, the athletics world of 2011 far more competitive across all events - the irascible Dutchman's talk reflects a growing sense of optimism about British prospects a year out from the London Olympics.
SELECTED BRITS TO WATCH
Sunday 28 August: Mo Farah in the 10,000m at 1130 BST.
Monday 29 August: Christine Ohuruogu in the 400m at 1305 BST, Jessica Ennis starts in the heptathalon
Thursday 1 September: Dai Greene in the 400m hurdles at 1330 BST.
Sunday 4 September: Phillips Idowu in the triple jump at 1105 BST, Mo Farah in the 5,000m at 1140 BST.
Since taking her first global heptathlon title in Berlin, Ennis has produced an overall personal best in all three of her subsequent big championships, winning them all in style that makes her clear favourite again when her two-day competition begins on Monday.
Farah will line up for Sunday's 10,000m as the best distance runner in the world this year, and while Greene will have to beat four closely-matched rivals to claim the 400m hurdles crown, Idowu's already excellent prospects - he set personal bests in winning triple jump gold at both the 2009 Worlds and 2010 Europeans - are boosted by the absence through injury of his main threat, Frenchman Teddy Tamgho.
"This is a World Championships, and they're all in this to be the best in the world," says Van Commenee simply.
"I expect from Jess to be the same old Jess, who is a very stable and consistent performer. She is in very good shape, and she is the type of person who can handle the expectations.
"For Mo, concerned is not the right word, but being in that position for perhaps the first time is quite a challenge for him.
"No British athlete in history has won a 5,000m or 10,000m at a global level, so it's not easy, but he knows that. If he wins that would be massive.
"I consider Dai to be one of the five athletes who can win the 400m hurdles, and he's similar to Jessica - a very stable personality, and that's very helpful in an arena when it's man on man and head to head.
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Athletics boss targets seven World Championships medals
"And for Phillips, we have seen that often in the past he hasn't had a great last rehearsal. But he is an awesome competitor when it really counts, and he is in great shape. I'm sure he can do this."
The mood in the camp is buoyant, the atmosphere stoked by a rousing speech given by team captain Christian Malcolm.
"I spoke about the time I was ill before competing in Athens [in 2004[ and I spoke of the Olympics in 2000 when John Capel was the favourite in the 200m," said Malcolm, whose words were given a standing ovation by his team-mates.
"In the final he was in lane four, I was in lane three and I was just going to track him, only he stumbled at the beginning. I went past him in the first two steps and hesitated, which I shouldn't have done, and finished fifth and missed out on a medal by 0.02 seconds.
"I said to the guys, 'Don't go in there giving your competitors too much respect. Because you go in there ranked maybe 20th or 30th in the world doesn't mean you can't be ranked top eight, top five, top three.
"You have to go out there and perform, have a plan and stick to it. Don't let anyone take you off it'.
"Anything can happen, the favourites don't always win and we don't always have to put the number one ranked competitor on a platform and say they are the best in the world.
"We have to go out there and be competitive against these guys."
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse is best known for his
Author PG Wodehouse was worried about how much the Nazis would pay him for his radio broadcasts from wartime Germany, MI5 files have shown.
He always maintained his humorous 1941 broadcasts of life in a German internment camp were to thank his fellow US prisoners for their support.
But files declassified by the National Archives show MI5 had serious doubts about the British writer's account.
They said he was not always as "frank and ingenious [sic] as he pretends". 'Hollywood friend' The author had been interned in Berlin in 1941 after the Germans overran France, where he had been living in a villa in Le Touquet.
Some in Britain saw the Wodehouse broadcasts as evidence he was a Nazi collaborator. Files released by the National Archives in 1999 showed the Director of Public Prosecutions considered whether he should face a treason charge.
The newly-released documents are on Werner Plack, a former Hollywood film extra turned Nazi propaganda official.
In them, Wodehouse said he was asked, while in the camp, to make the recordings by Plack.
“Start Quote
I never had any intention of assisting the enemy and that I have suffered a great deal of mental pain as a result of my action”
End QuotePG Wodehouse
The author, best known for his Jeeves and Wooster stories, had previously lived in the US.
He referred to Plack as "my Hollywood friend" in one letter, while seeming to appear uncertain of his surname to another acquaintance, the files revealed.
"This incident suggests that Wodehouse is not always quite as frank and ingenious [sic] as he pretends," the MI5 report says.
"It also reveals that Wodehouse had had an interview with a Nazi propaganda official prior to his release from internment."
Wodehouse defended his broadcasts to a journalist, saying he thought of himself as American and pointing out that the US was not at war with Germany at the time.
The file adds: "He was worried that they had not told him how much he would be paid for his broadcasts."
Wodehouse was interrogated by MI5 officer Major Edward Cussed in September 1944 after the fall of Paris to the Allies, and said he remembered Mr Plack from Hollywood, where they had occasionally met at parties.
He said he was upset when he heard about the response in Britain to the broadcasts.
"I realised what a hideous mistake I had made and I have been longing for an opportunity ever since of putting myself right," he said.
"I never had any intention of assisting the enemy and I have suffered a great deal of mental pain as a result of my action."
Wodehouse moved to the US in 1945 and later became a citizen, living there until his death in 1975, aged 93.
Russ Abbot has also appeared on stage in Oliver! and The producers
Comic and Last of the Summer Wine actor Russ Abbot is to play Tommy Cooper in a new BBC Radio 3 drama, it has been confirmed.
Glass Chair Chair Glass imagines what would have happened if the comedian and magician had met absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco.
Dame Harriet Walter will also star in the drama, while Vera Drake actor Allan Corduner will play Ionesco.
The 90-minute play will be broadcast on 18 September at 20:30BST.
The story has been written by Annie Caulfield, whose credits include the radio drama The Von Trapps and Me, which told the story of The Sound of Music from the point of view of the baroness.
Caulfield told The Stage there was a "showbusiness rumour" that Cooper and Ionesco had once met, and that her drama imagines this took place in 1975 in Paris.
Abbot starred in BBC One comedy Last of the Summer Wine from 2008 until it ended last year.
He has also recently appeared on stage in Oliver! and The Producers.
The star is best remembered for his self-titled comedy series which ran during the 1980s and 90s.
Abbot also scored a number of chart hits, including Atmosphere, which made the UK top 10 in 1984.
An Edinburgh Fringe award given to an outstanding play carrying a human rights message has joint winners for the first time.
The Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award was given to Sold, directed by Catherine Alexander and The Wheel, directed by Vicky Featherstone.
The judges of the award, which has been running for 10 years, considered a record 92 entries.
Losing finalist Mark Thomas was the first comedian ever to be shortlisted.
Neil Cooper, one of the judging panel, said all the works were nominated "not because they were saying something that mattered but because they were producing a work of art about something that mattered".
The judges described The Wheel as "a complex and epic story of how children can be corrupted by the ravages of war".
Accepting the award, the play's writer Zinnie Harris said: "As a playwright I am interested in how we in the West reconcile our comfy lives when it is so grim for so many people around the world."
Mark Thomas was the first comedian to be nominated for the award
She joked that her friends had begged her to write a comedy.
But Ms Harris said: "Too many people are in too much distress. I feel a responsibility to keep looking at that."
Sold was said by the judges to be an "ambitious, fast-moving show which combines a strong overview of the issue of slavery in human society".
It was described as a "memorable piece of agitprop drama which leaves us in no doubt that despite the increasing exposure of human trafficking in recent years, and widespread political debate on the issue, it is a problem that is not going away".
Mark Thomas's Extreme Rambling (Walking the Wall) and Release, a piece of physical theatre about prisoners in the months after they are let out of jail, missed out on the award.
Amnesty International Scotland director John Watson said the Edinburgh Fringe was a "riotous celebration of freedom of expression".
He said he was heartened to see that the "consideration of human rights and what is right and wrong is alive and well at the Fringe"
Jenkin's Drop The Dead Donkey scooped major TV awards
Drop The Dead Donkey creator Guy Jenkin is to write a comedy based on the newspaper phone-hacking scandal for Channel 4.
Hacks is set in a fictional paper where journalists use methods such as hacking, using private investigators and "pinging" - when a phone signal is used to track someone.
The one-off special is due to be broadcast later this year.
Jenkin said: "We hope to be faster and funnier than all the inquiries so far."
The scandal has so far brought about the close of British newspaper News of the World and has led to the arrest and questioning of former journalists and senior News International executives.
Channel 4's head of comedy Shane Allen said: "We are very excited about Hacks and it's great that Channel 4 can be so quick off the mark to shine a satirical light on what's been happening in the media over the last few months."
Drop The Dead Donkey, which Jenkin created with long-time collaborator Andy Hamilton, ran from 1990 to 1998 and was set in the offices of the fictional TV news company GlobeLink News.
The ensemble cast of the Bafta-winning show included Stephen Tompkinson and Neil Pearson.
Cousins will receive a £15,000 grant to help him create new solo work
The winner of the first New Adventures Choreographer Award, set up by dancer and choreographer Matthew Bourne, has been named as James Cousins.
The 22-year-old, who beat 14 other finalists, was praised by judges for his "refreshing desire to entertain".
The London Contemporary Dance School graduate will receive a £15,000 grant to work on his choreographic skills.
He will also be mentored by Bourne and will give a showcase performance of his new work next year.
Cousins, from Newbury in Berkshire, graduated from LCDS in 2010 where he received an award for most promising dance artist.
Tom Jackson Greaves was awarded a runner-up prize
Last year he also appeared in Bourne's Swan Lake during its New York season.
The judges, which included Bourne, said they were impressed by Cousins' ambition to form his own company.
Nearly 100 aspiring choreographers applied for the award, set up by Bourne's New Adventures company to mark his 50th birthday last year.
Only one prize was to have been awarded, but the judges decided to create a runner-up prize which they gave to 19-year-old Tom Jackson Greaves.
"Our aim was to find a winner that we feel will benefit most from what New Adventures has to offer, at this stage in their careers," said Bourne.
"I am personally very excited to work with James Cousins and our runner-up Tom Jackson Greaves in helping them to realise some of their ambitions."
The next New Adventures Choreographer Award will be presented in 2013.
More than two million people on the US east coast have been told to evacuate their homes as Hurricane Irene nears, packing winds of 90mph (150km/h).
The mayor of New York has ordered an unprecedented evacuation of a quarter of a million people living in low-lying parts of the city.
Seven states from North Carolina to Connecticut have declared emergencies ahead of Irene's arrival.
US President Barack Obama has warned Irene could be "a historic hurricane".
He has urged people in the projected path of Hurricane Irene - the first hurricane of the Atlantic season - to take precautions.
"Don't wait, don't delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. All of us have to take this storm seriously," he said on Friday, before cutting short his holiday in Martha's Vineyard, an island on the Massachusetts coast, a day early to head back to Washington.
The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Irene from a category two to a category one hurricane but says it is still packing hurricane-force winds of 90mph (150km/h) that extend outwards some 90 miles (150km). Tropical-force winds extend as far as 290m (465km).
The NHC says Irene is expected to weaken in strength after it hits the coast of North Carolina later on Saturday morning, but is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves north along the mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday.
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President Obama: "If you're in the way of this hurricane you should be preparing now"
More than 200,000 people have already evacuated coastal parts of North Carolina as high waves and strong winds began to lash islands just off the mainland. Residents hoping to ride out the storm have stocked up on food, water and fuel.
Forecasters have warned of "extremely dangerous" storm surges in parts of North Carolina that could raise water levels by as much as 11 ft (3.35m).
"Stores are busy, petrol stations are running dry but thankfully I prepared myself last night with supplies," said Alex Schlesinger of Virginia Beach in the neighbouring state of Virginia, also in the hurricane's path. Grounded flights Tens of thousands of people were also on the move in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York City after mandatory evacuations were ordered for people living in low-lying areas.
Parts of New York City affected include the financial district around Wall Street in Manhattan. Hospitals in affected areas of the city had begun evacuating patients.
"We've never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's transport network, including the New York City subway, would close from midday (16:00 GMT) on Saturday.
Airports operating by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - including JFK, La Guardia and Newark - will close to arriving flights at the same time.
However, the airports will remain open for departing flights until further notice.
In Washington DC, Sunday's dedication of the new memorial for Martin Luther King Jr - which President Obama had been expected to attend - has been postponed until at least September.
Manhattan, like other parts of the east coast, braces itself for Hurricane Irene
The power company serving the Washington area advised of "potential widespread power outages" at the weekend.
Amtrak, the US rail network, announced it was cancelling services between Washington and Boston from Saturday, having already suspended operations south to Virginia and beyond.
The Pentagon has loaded 200 trucks with emergency supplies, and 100,000 National Guard troops are on standby, the BBC's Steve Kingstone in New York reports.
The American Red Cross said it was preparing dozens of emergency shelters along the east coast.
The eastern seaboard is the most densely populated corridor in the US, with more than 65 million people living in major cities along the coast from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
"We're going to have damages, we just don't know how bad," Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press news agency.
"This is one of the largest populations that will be impacted by one storm at one time."
If Irene hits New York and New England at category two, it will be the region's strongest storm since Hurricane Bob glanced off Massachusetts in 1991, and Hurricane Gloria, which caused extensive damage to New York City in 1985.
Are you in the path of Hurricane Irene? How are you preparing for the storm? You can get in touch using the form below:
Motown executive Esther Gordy Edwards - the sister of label founder Berry Gordy - has died at the age of 91.
She served as senior vice-president and was charged with exposing the unique Motown sound to international audiences.
She also led the efforts to turn Motown's original headquarters in Detroit into a museum.
Berry Gordy started the famed label, home to such artists as Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, in 1959.
A statement on the Motown Museum's website said Edwards died "surrounded by family and friends" on 24 August.
Edwards - Gordy's eldest sister - held several positions within the label but is best known for turning Motown's famed Studio A in Detroit into an attraction after the company moved to Los Angeles.
Gordy called her "one of my biggest assets at Motown".
He said: "Esther turned the so-called trash left behind after I sold the company in 1988 into a phenomenal world-class monument."
She also worked with several of Motown's biggest artists through the years such as Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder said in a statement: "She believed in me. When I was 14 years old and many other people didn't or could only see what they could at the time, she championed me being in Motown."
"I shared with her many of my songs first before anyone else," he added.
Playwright Sir David Hare has been awarded this year's Pen/Pinter Prize, it has been announced.
The award, set up by the writers' charity Pen in memory of playwright Harold Pinter, is given to a British writer who casts an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze upon the world.
Pinter's widow, Lady Antonia Fraser, said Sir David was a "worthy winner".
He will be presented with his prize on 10 October at the British Library.
The award will be shared with an imprisoned "writer of courage" who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs, to be announced at the event.
Lady Antonia said: "In the course of his long, distinguished career, David Hare has never failed to speak out fearlessly on the subject of politics in the broadest sense.
"This courage, combined with his rich creative talent, makes him a worthy winner of the Pen/Pinter Prize".
Known for his gritty portrayals of contemporary Britain, Sir David's notable works include Plenty, a portrait of disillusionment in post-war Britain, and The Absence of War, a drama about the Labour Party.
He was nominated for Oscars for The Hours, in 2003, and for Kate Winslet drama The Reader, in 2008.
He has also directed and written spy thriller Page Eight, starring Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz, which will be screened on BBC Two on Sunday 28 August at 21:00 BST.
