London, Dec 6 : Troubled footballer Paul Gascoigne has paid 215,000 pounds as tax in order to avoid bankruptcy.

Gazza, 41, who had earlier botched in making returns for two years, was given a bankruptcy hearing last month, which demanded him to pay up until January.

Thus, Gazza was forced to sell of his overseas properties to clear his debts, after which the Inland Revenue’s bankruptcy petition was dismissed.

“Paul is really delighted this episode is now behind him,” The Sun quoted Gazza’s lawyer Craig Montgomery, as saying.

London, Dec 6 : Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed that he had come very close to signing up with Arsenal before he joined Manchester United.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger met Ronaldo thrice to persuade him to join the north London team, but his efforts failed because Man U offered the footballer three times more the amount the former was offering.

“I came within a whisker of doing it. Wenger is someone I respect a lot. He is very intelligent,” the Sun quoted Ronaldo as saying.

Wenger did his best to woo Ronaldo over to his team and even gave the ace footie a Gunners shirt with his name on the back, but unfortunately for him he was only able to seduce Ronaldo’s mum, Maria Dolores.

Sydney, Dec. 6 : Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza has failed a fitness test for Tasmania, putting a cloud over his chances of playing in the Perth Test against South Africa.

Krejza avoided the media as he hurried off the Bellerive Oval this morning after failing the test, telling team management to tell reporters he had gone home as he left the field for treatment and to re-fit an ankle brace.

Australia''s first Test against South Africa in Perth is less than two weeks away, starting on December 17.

London, Dec. 6 : Key Chelsea players John Terry and Frank Lampard have reportedly questioned coach Phil Scolari’s coaching techniques.

Terry and Lampard went to see Scolari on Thursday to ask him to increase the intensity in training. Both stars feel the coaching has become too laid back and repetitive and that it is transmitting itself on to the field.

While Lampard publicly called for Chelsea to be less predictable, Terry questioned the desire of his teammates to make a go of it in both the Premier League and the Champions League.

Kolkata, Dec

NEW YORK, Dec. 5  -- Eight quarterbacks were among the ailing when the injury report for the NFL's 14th week was released Friday afternoon.

The quarterbacks who will not play are Cincinnati's Carson Palmer (right elbow) and Detroit's Dan Orlovsky (right thumb). Buffalo's Trent Edwards (groin) and Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck (back) are listed as doubtful.

Tennessee's Vince Young (right thumb) is questionable, with Houston's Matt Schaub (knee), Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger (knee) and Tampa Bay's Brian Griese (right elbow) in the probable category.

Among those on the list, only Orlovsky was not a starter when the 2008 season started Sept. 4.