Sports minister Richard Caborn has praised England and Holland for taking a stand against racism in football. Both sides played at Villa Park in Wednesday's friendly wearing unique strips.

Former England captain David Beckham broke all records for replica shirts sales on his first day as a Real Madrid player, the club told reporters. 

Club officials said its main souvenir shop alongside the Santiago Bernabeu stadium sold 8,000 shirts with the No 23 that Beckham will wear in little more than the seven hours on Wednesday.

Two hundred were sold in the first hour after Beckham had formally been presented with his new jersey by Real Madrid's honorary president and legendary striker Alfredo Di Stefano.

But then the numbers started to rocket once news spread around the Spanish capital that Beckham's shirt was in stock.

Real said that by the close of trading on Wednesday, the shop had exhausted its initial supply of Beckham's shirt.

To put Beckham on your back is not cheap.

It was the moment Norwood became the focus of the world's attention. It was the resolution of an old-fashioned whodunnit that had the public and media gripped.

It's the oft-regaled story of Pickles the dog ferreting out the stolen Jules Rimet World Cup trophy in his Norwood garden back in 1966.

But this tale also has a dark side and set in motion a Tutankhamen-like curse. "I feel like a lucky man," says David Corbett, the former owner of Pickles, "because it's not been a very lucky cup."

The trophy was audaciously pinched on March 20 1966 from under the noses of the footballing authorities, who were proudly exhibiting it in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, prior to England's hosting of the tournament.

Top fashion designer Sir Paul Smith talks exclusively to World Football's Mike Geddes about how soccer became cool, and which kits from the World Cup 2002 collection could make it on to the catwalk... Let's face it - footballers are cool.

Men like David Beckham lead the way both on and off the pitch - he was voted 'most fashionable male' by GQ magazine once.

But anyone who lived through the vast lapels and skimpy shorts of the 70s and 80s will tell you it wasn't always like this.

Fashion designer Sir Paul Smith has spent years kitting out the top names in the game, and he told me where it all started.

"I know George Best very well" he said, "and one of my first jobs as a young designer was designing George Best Kidswear in the 70s.

Cameroon in shirt appeal

The Cameroon football federation, Fecafoot, will appeal against Fifa's decision to deduct six points from their upcoming World Cup campaign. Fifa's disciplinary committee made the decision on Friday that Cameroon would lose six points from their 2006 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

The punishment is for Cameroon's decision to wear a one-piece football kit at the Cup of Nations in Tunisia earlier this year.

Fifa told the Indomitable Lions that they had to change their strip after the first round of the championship.

However Cameroon wore the kit for their quarter-final loss to Nigeria.

The history of the red-black stripes shirts is one of the less known by the fans. The man responsible for the look of the AC Milan shirt was Herbert Kilpin, one of the Englishman who established AC Milan in 1899.

Kilpin inspired himself from the English sides shirts, who most of them had at that time a shirt with stripes and a badge with a cross on a background.