by: Guillem Balague - The Times

Liverpool’s victory over the old enemy (Everton) this weekend will ease the pressure on Rafael BenÍtez, for whom two Champions League final appearances in three season has not been enough to avoid harsh judgments after another failed title bid. Here he answers his critics.Your way of working has always involved squad rotation. How and why do you take the decision to rotate a player? Are fewer rotations the way forward?

First, if you rotate a squad it means you believe in your players and trust in their ability to perform. You want everyone to feel they are working together to achieve our goals. If we win it is thanks to the efforts of everyone, however small their contribution. Look at Vladimir Smicer, who did not play a lot for us [in 2004-05] but scored one of the goals that allowed us to win the Champions League.

Every manager with a team in European competitions and with international players, with so many games to play, rotates his squad – call them changes, rotations, they all do it. Nowadays, in comparison to 20 years ago, we play 20 per cent more games in a season. Players run 15 per cent more than they used to and, even more importantly, they run 30 per cent faster.

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Broadcast preparations are underway for the Euro 2008 football championships, which begin on June 7, with Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse planning to distribute football coverage in high definition for the first time, with what it describes as “lightly compressed” HD using its established standard definition transmission network.

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Setanta Sports have revealed the latest addition to the studio line-up for the hit show ‘I’m on Setanta Sports’. Joining ‘Jose’ and ‘Sven’ in studio will be football star ‘Wayne’.
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Fox Soccer Channel TO TELEVISE 2008 MISL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FINAL LIVE IN PRIME TIME ON SATURDAY, APRIL 26

LOS ANGELES & WESTPORT, Conn. (Tuesday, March 25, 2008) – The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and Fox Soccer Channel today announced that the League’s 2008 MISL Championship Series Final will be televised on the network live in prime time.  The exclusive arrangement features the MISL Championship game from U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee on Saturday, April 26 at 7:00 p.m. EST.  The MISL and Fox Soccer Channel are finalizing the production elements and further details will be released as they become available.  Additionally, the MISL announced that the California Cougars at Chicago Storm match on Friday, March 28, originally scheduled to air live, will not be carried by Fox Soccer Channel.
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GOLTV Scores Exclusive Television Rights to Germany’s World Cup Qualifying Matches

GOLTV, the 24-hour all soccer network, announced today that it has scored the exclusive Canadian and U.S. broadcast rights to all of Germany’s 2010 World Cup qualifying matches starting in September.

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March 29 to April 4

Below is a list of soccer matches that will air live or on tape delay on GOLTV from March 29 to April 4, 2008.

Among this week’s highlights include:

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FIFA Street 3 is available in stores now. This arcade football game features international superstars Ronaldinho, Peter Crouch, and Gennaro Gattuso on the front of pack and delivers a new look that turns the game’s global football icons into stylised action heroes who perform over-the-top trick moves.

The third chapter in the FIFA Street series from EA SPORTS™ creates a hyper-real world where football’s biggest stars perform to an eclectic selection of music seamlessly infused into their surroundings. Using a simplified control system that enables you to easily perform over-the-top trick moves, the game’s environments pulsate and explode to life with every well-timed tackle, outrageous trick move or unstoppable shot on goal.

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LOS ANGELES & WESTPORT, Conn. (Tuesday, March 25, 2008) – The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and Fox Soccer Channel today announced that the League’s 2008 MISL Championship Series Final will be televised on the network live in prime time.  The exclusive arrangement features the MISL Championship game from U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee on Saturday, April 26 at 7:00 p.m. EST.  The MISL and Fox Soccer Channel are finalizing the production elements and further details will be released as they become available.  Additionally, the MISL announced that the California Cougars at Chicago Storm match on Friday, March 28, originally scheduled to air live, will not be carried by Fox Soccer Channel.

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Premier League club Chelsea will play a Malaysian all-star team in Kuala Lumpur in July as part of a two-match Asian tour.

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View all today’s video highlights on our match page for March 26, 2008. Look out for the video highlight icon.