League One

The runaway leaders Lincoln City will move closer to automatic promotion if they win at home to Wimbledon this afternoon. Second-placed Cardiff, who have an 11-point cushion with seven games remaining, are not in action until Monday: they were due to meet FA Cup quarter-finalists Port Vale.

“Nick Ames’ piece on shenanigans at the top of the Italian football Federation is indeed a great read – and by nice coincidence, there’s a connection with a football book I’m reading, The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, a tale of a village team reaching the heights of Serie B,” writes Charles Antaki.

“Lo and behold, Gabriele Gravina, who just resigned as head of the Italian Football Federation, was a top official in that village club all those years ago - and allegedly a fairly dodgy one at that.

“Among other things he was reported to have done was organise a showpiece trial for a Leicester City striker, who proceeded to make a fool of himself, and everyone else, before revealing that he was part of a troop of actors hired as a publicity stunt.

“There’s also a tale about a consignment of, ahem, masculinity-enhancing drugs. And much much more, of a less entertaining kind. A terrific book, maybe one of the best football books ever.”

It’s just not football…

The county cricket season begins at 11am sharp. You can follow all the action with the brilliant Tanya Aldred.

The Champions League quarter-finals begin next week, with Bayern Munich v Real Madrid the pick of a cracking line-up. There’s some worrying news for Bayern, with Harry Kane a doubt for Tuesday’s first leg in Madrid.

“Harry trained well until Sunday, then he felt something in his ankle while with the national team,” said their head coach Vincent Kompany. “That will have an impact on tomorrow’s game [against Freiburg – he won’t be available. Nevertheless, I’m positive about Tuesday. It’s not great, I’d like him to play against Freiburg, but as things stand today that won’t be possible.”

The Premier League XI

Women’s football

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr, one of the greatest players in WSL history, has been strongly linked with a move to the US club Denver Summit when her Chelsea contract expires in the summer.

Japan won last month’s Women’s Asian Cup in emphatic style: six wins out of six, 29 goals scored, one conceded. But yesterday they effectively sacked Nils Nielsen, the Greenlander who coached them to glory. Vanilla Ice was wrong: in football, it seems, sometimes even the best is a felony.

Nielsen’s contract expired at the end of the tournament and the Japan Football Assocation decided not to offer him a new one. Norio Sasaki, the women’s national team director, said Japan could not win next year’s World Cup if Nielsen remained in charge, describing his coaching as “a little too lax, a little too soft”.

FA Cup: Chelsea v Port Vale (Saturday, 5.15pm)

All things being equal, Chelsea will reach the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend. But a storm is brewing in west London.

Spurs, who were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Aston Villa, have no game this weekend. That means time on the training ground for their new manager Roberto De Zerbi, who was appointed on Tuesday. De Zerbi has apologised for previous comments about Mason Greenwood when he was the manager of Marseille.

We mentioned the latest Italian football crisis at the top of the show/bottom of the page, but it’s worth another plug for this piece from Nick Ames. It includes a warning from the Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin that Italy could lose the right to host the European Championship in six years’ time.

Euro 2032 is scheduled and will take place, of that there is no doubt. I just hope that the infrastructure [in Italy] will be ready. If that’s not the case, the tournament will not be held in Italy. Maybe Italy’s politicians should ask themselves why the football infrastructure is among the worst in Europe.

FA Cup: Southampton v Arsenal (Saturday, 8pm)

Eleven Arsenal players withdrew from their respective international squads. How many will be in action at St Mary’s tomorrow?

Women’s Champions League

Arsenal will face OL Lyonnes in the semi-finals for the second season in a row. OL Lyonnes overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to beat Wolfsburg 4-0 after extra-time in France.

Last season, OL were strong favourites to go through after winning 2-1 at the Emirates, only for Arsenal to run riot in France.

There’s a full EFL programme today, starting with Middlesbrough v Millwall and Doncaster v Walsall at 12.30pm. I won’t type all the fixtures because that would be an arthritic mistake when I can just direct you to our live scores page. But there are some big games, with Boro v Millwall probably the pick.

The race for the second automatic promotion spot in the Championship is spandex-tight. Fifth-placed Hull go to Oxford, while third-placed Ipswich have the day off. They were due to meet Southampton, who are otherwise engaged in the FA Cup.

In other Championship news, Roy Hodgson, 78, begins his second spell as Bristol City manager with a trip to Charlton.

Phil Foden made two starts for England over the international break as Thomas Tuchel experimented with how the Manchester City attacking midfielder could be used at the World Cup. He played in a couple of positions but was ineffective in two collectively subpar performances from the Three Lions. It means he has one assist and no goals in his past 22 appearances for club and country in what has been an underwhelming campaign for the 25-year-old. He has dropped below Rayan Cherki in Pep Guardiola’s pecking order and has not completed a full 90 minutes since January. In the Carabao Cup final, Foden was permitted a late cameo, and it feels like this is the time when he should be making a difference in the final stages of the season.

There are still trophies to be played for, even if winning the Premier League title would involve a huge turnaround against Arsenal. This means the FA Cup is the most promising prospect and Foden should be desperate to start and remind everyone of the world-class player he could be, especially against a Liverpool side who often struggle against smart No 10s. The next six weeks could be make or break for Foden’s City and international career, so he must seize every opportunity.