It compares the city’s respective histories – Liverpool’s finance and shipping versus Manchester’s cotton mills – as well as deprivation, regeneration, architecture, sport and, of course, music. The pieces concludes that – outside the football world – a Manchester-Liverpool rivalry is little more than unfriendly banter.

The feature also includes a public poll on ‘which is your favourite city’. At the moment Manchester is winning – if that’s the word – with 54 per cent of the 13,000 votes. Just so you know, Manchester and Liverpool’s respective populations (ignoring surrounding areas) are 441,200 and 447,500.

The thought of 130,000 frantic bargain-hunters raiding the Trafford Centre’s Superdrug is more than enough to keep me away. I visited Preston briefly where only Riverisland attracted anything constituting a queue.

I was also drawn to that other annual feature of Boxing Day: a festive, freezing football match.

Blackburn Rovers’ 1-0 win over Liverpool was the game of choice. The ticket cost £39, which works out at 43p per minute of football (excluding injury time).

Or, according to current rates, 12.2 ounces of gold, which is probably how much the ticket and program (£3) weighed.

But, following trouble at the opening Paraguay game, it seems screenings in this city are becoming as well travelled as the team in Germany.

About the Battle of Exchange Square, Manchester Confidential’s Mark Garner said “a handful of fans were arrested for causing trouble”. Despite over 10,000 people attending that day, police confirmed just five arrests.

It was certainly no Stuttgart then, was it?

Nevertheless, witness the total lack of atmosphere at the hastily arranged replacement venue, Castlefield Arena, where the Sweden game was screened. As Councillor Pat Karney put it:

“There were no arrests, no accidents and no alcohol.”

And no fun, he probably should have added.

Now, says the MEN, this nomadic roadshow may be heading for the City of Manchester stadium if England make it to the semi-finals (and that’s a huge if):

“Manchester City’s 48,000-capacity stadium is seen as the only site large enough and easy to police for the screening.”

Third time lucky perhaps?

1. Hakan Yakin
2. Stern John
3. Razak Pimpong
4. Gilles Yapi Yapo
5. Antonio Lebo-Lebo
6. Arsenio Love Cris
7. Silva Quim
8. Chong-Gug Song
9. Tranquillo Barnetta
10. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink

Honourable mentions go to Titi Buengo, Aldo Bobadilla and Fred.

And a couple of memorable quotes:

“There’s been a massive invasion of Poles into Germany… there’s some sort of irony in there!” – Gary Lineker during the Germany – Poland build-up

“They’ll be sharpening their pens back in France” – Commentator on another poor performance from Thierry Henry

This article in today’s Guardian confirms that the screenings at Clayton Square and Canada Square respectively won’t be repeated for other England games, including Thursday’s Trinidad & Tobago and next Tuesday’s Sweden games.

The situation at Manchester’s Exchange Square, meanwhile, is still being considered. With its unexpected popularity – as many as 12,000 people turning out – they may well deem it a health hazard for those attending. From The Guardian:

“This morning Manchester police, city council officials and shopping centre managers will meet to discuss if England’s game against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday ought to be screened. If it goes ahead, extra officers will be drafted in and restrictions on the number of people at the screening imposed.”

A couple of friends tried watching Saturday’s game in Manchester city centre only to be turned away. Understandable, given this view captured by I am Banno:

A colleague was in Liverpool, where he said a relatively good-natured event turned sour after half-time, as England were forced onto the backfoot and a few decisions went against them.

He also said that many of the already merry fans were drinking at the event and went to refuel at Tesco at half-time. It sounds like police didn’t even attempt to enforce the no-alcohol rule.

Anyone wanting to enjoy World Cup games without the risk of being glassed should note that the Odeon cinema (formerly thefilmworks) is showing World Cup games. Admission is £4.

Check out this Metro News guide for other suggestions.

UPDATE: Manchester screening moves to a ticketed free event at Castlefield Arena, but not in time for the Trinidad & Tobago game.

Which was a stroke of luck, as I feel inclined to mention the Beeb’s online coverage of the World Cup. Streaming games (legally) online is a ground-breaking move indeed.

It’s something millions of office workers – myself included – will find genuinely useful and adds value for their licence fee money.

The Beeb – along with ITV – spent £160m on World Cup broadcasting rights for this and the last World Cup. This is compared to just £3.35m paid for France 1998, as the University of Leicester details:

“The British deal with Kirchmedia, was finalised in October 2001 after almost a year of discussions. These became quite heated. Kirchmedia wanted £170 million for British rights to cover World Cup 2002 only. However, there was no real scope for a market for a rights auction in the UK because British legislation means that the World Cup finals must be shown on terrestrial TV in the UK. As the BBC and ITV decided to negotiate with Kirch together – and with the satellite and cable companies effectively out of the picture – Kirch was in a difficult spot. In the first round of negotiations, £55 million was offered by ITV and the BBC for rights to World Cup 2002. In the end an overall price of £160 million was agreed for the rights to show both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.”

As a footnote, Kirchmedia went bust in early 2002.

The BBC’s online coverage will apparently include every group stage game, the second round, quarter finals and anything else they bought TV rights to. Four-minute highlight clips from every game will also go online.

To test the water, yesterday evening I watched the opening game, Germany versus Costa Rica, in a tiny browser window. When people ran, the video gave them an ashy trail like that of a slug, or something out of Donnie Darko.

Still, I could track the bizarre bending ball for Germany’s fourth goal and I could even tell that Paulo Wanchope wasn’t offside for his first goal – just:

Also, via Spinneyhead, non-UK citizens can stream the World Cup for free elsewhere.

Not one to listen to music radio normally, I tuned in while in the shower this morning. The sequence went: Embrace » Some Adverts » Coldplay… an inspired ten minutes, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The Embrace song (World At Your Feet) is England’s official World Cup song and it sounds, as somewhere else put it this week, more like Coldplay than Coldplay themselves.

What were the FA thinking? I presume – after months and years of controversy, sleaze and the like – they just opted for the most MOR, least offensive act they could find.

But David Blunt wasn’t available that day.

Thankfully Sham 69’s alternative World Cup song sounds more promising. It features Graham Coxon and is produced by Stephen Street (of The Smiths and Blur fame).

You can hear a bit of it via the BBC Sport website, where singer Jimmy Pursey attempts to pick a fight with the Yorkshire band.

Jimmy isn’t a stranger to an argument. You may remember that he had a bit of a spat with The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Lydon at the US Embassy last year. True punks – still angry after all these years.

I saw Jimmy a couple of month’s later at Manchester’s In The City conference. He was a very eloquent speaker on stage, despite not being part of the panel.