Ruiz is the WBA’s mandatory challenger for Haye, who defeated Nikolay Valuev in November to claim the title.

“It’s been 10 years since the heavyweight championship has been fought in Britain,” said Haye.

“Now it’s time to showcase my skills again in front of the great British public,” added the 29-year-old.

Haye had hoped to make the first defence of his title at London’s O2 Arena or Millwall Football Club’s New Den stadium.

But with both venues already booked Haye has been forced to switch to the Manchester Evening News Arena.

“I’m delighted to have the fight at Manchester’s MEN Arena,” said Haye.

606: DEBATE
Ruiz is an awful fighter to watch. I don’t think it’s Haye’s fault, but the people that have been in the way are all box office cyanide

kentspur
“I’ve been there on many nights to watch Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, even Mike Tyson, and the atmosphere was always tremendous.”

If he gets past Ruiz, Haye could face a fight later in the year against either WBC champion Vitali Klitschko, 38, or his 33-year-old brother Wladimir, who holds the IBF and WBO belts.

Ruiz, 38, has been beaten eight times in a 54-fight career, with one draw and 30 knockouts. He last fought in July, beating Adnan Serin inside seven rounds and is a former two-time heavyweight world champion.

Former opponents include Hasim Rahman, Evander Holyfield, Valuev and Roy Jones Jr.

“John Ruiz is a master at making great fighters look ordinary and we are very wary of the threat he poses,” admitted Haye’s trainer Adam Booth.

Londoner Haye has lost once in 24 fights, but has won his last 13, 11 inside the distance, and beat Valuev on points in Germany to become Britain’s first world champion since Lennox Lewis.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to what I do best – throwing my trademark ‘Hayemakers.’ Ruiz is a come-forward fighter so I aim to get at him, break him down, and take him out in good style,” added Haye.

“This is a very different fight to the one I had against Valuev. He is a pressure fighter, has quick hands and will try and take me into the trenches and I’m relishing that battle.”

Ruiz, nicknamed ‘The Quiet Man’, passed on the opportunity to attend Tuesday’s media conference in Manchester despite Haye’s promotional company insisting that first-class plane tickets from the United States had been provided.

However, he later responded to Haye’s claims he was “boring” and a “two-time champion who nobody wants” by saying: “What I saw in his last fight was boring, and he’s calling me boring?

“How many punches did he throw against Valuev, 10 a round? I’m glad he’s talking, he knows he’s got his hands full.”

Oscar de la Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, who promote both fighters, added: “With his explosive fighting style, heart, youth and charisma, David Haye is the most exciting heavyweight in the world.

“On the other hand, John Ruiz is a very experienced fighter who knows what it takes to dominate in the heavyweight division and to win when it counts in a big fight. I expect a great fight that fight fans shouldn’t miss.”

Flood becomes England’s fifth fly-half in 12 months
Toby Flood has been named as fly-half for England in Saturday’s Six Nations game against Ireland in Dublin.

The Leicester number 10 swaps places with Andy Goode, who drops to the bench, in the only change to the starting XV beaten 23-15 by Wales.

Fit-again Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care, who missed the opening two games of the campaign, replaces Paul Hodgson among the replacements.

Prop Tim Payne and utility back Ben Foden will also travel to Dublin.

But there is no place even on the bench for Danny Cipriani, despite a recent return to form with Wasps.

Flood’s return to the starting XV means England have changed their fly-half seven times in the last 10 games.

Jonny Wilkinson, Charlie Hodgson, Cipriani and and Goode have also all had run-outs in the number 10 shirt.

Wilkinson was the man in possession in last year’s Six Nations before being replaced by Cipriani for the final game against Ireland.

606: DEBATE
That is a very slow back row, Wallace will have a field day against Worsley – the loose ball will be Ireland’s. Ireland by 10 points

Abernedd

Hodgson and Flood started the two summer Tests in New Zealand before Cipriani returned from a serious ankle injury for the autumn series.

But after starting the first three matches, he was replaced by Flood, who took over for the final Twickenham Test against the All Blacks.

With Flood nursing a calf injury before the Six Nations, Goode was recalled for the opening match against Italy.

He marked his return to the side with a try inside two minutes and a 16-point haul, and also created England’s first try against Wales for Paul Sackey and landed a 40m drop-goal.

But he did not return to the action after being sin-binned early in the second half, with Flood sent on in his place, and the Leicester man now gets a chance to stake his claim from the start.

“We are comfortable with either of those guys playing, but felt it was the right time for Toby to come back in,” England manager Martin Johnson told BBC Sport.

We need to take the referee’s influence out of it as much as possible by not giving them reason for us to be penalised

England manager Martin Johnson

“He has played pretty well coming off the bench, so we think it is a great opportunity for him to come in and start.”

Johnson insists Saturday’s clash represents a “fantastic opportunity” to prove their mettle at Croke Park, where Brian Ashton’s side – including seven members of the current 22 – were humiliated 43-13 two years ago.

“I think this will be the last time an England team will play at Croke Park for the forseeable future,” Johnson added.

“The atmosphere will be brilliant and it will be another great occasion. We need to obviously rise to it but not get carried away with it.

“We need to be thinking, and need to be accurate. Last week we were 9-0 down very quickly. We came back but it would be nice to not be in that position after 20 minutes.”

Johnson believes that too much is being made of England’s disciplinary issues, but concedes his side must ensure they do no have further cause to bemoan decisions against them.

“We need to take the referee’s influence out of it as much as possible by not giving them reason for us to be penalised – the lower the penalty count, the better your chance in the game,” he added.

“It’s an ongoing process, we’re continually trying to take it out of our game, but sometimes you end up on the wrong side of three or four calls and it can make the difference.”

England team to face Ireland in Dublin on 28 February:

D Armitage; Sackey, Tindall, Flutey, Cueto; Flood, Ellis; Sheridan, Mears, Vickery; Borthwick, Kennedy; Haskell, Worsley, Easter.
Replacements: Hartley, White, Croft, Narraway, Care, Goode, Tait.

Indexes

value change %

FTSE 100
4204.31 90.89 2.12

FTSE 250
6247.76 176.00 2.74

FTSE 350
2158.46 48.07 2.18

FTSE All Share
2103.25 46.43 2.16

FTSE Techmark
1258.17 24.55 1.91

FTSEurofirst 300
798.13 12.69 1.57

DJ Eurostoxx 50
2285.94 36.84 1.59

Market reports
London
Paris
Frankfurt
Wall Street
Tokyo
Top 10 winners

value change %

Keller Group
616.50 27.50 4.67

Balfour Beatty
365.25 14.00 3.99

SYNERGY HLTH.
414.50 14.50 3.63

Mothercare
393.50 12.00 3.15

Daejan Holdings
2165.00 64.00 3.05

MITIE Group
214.25 6.25 3.00

UK COMM PROP
57.00 1.50 2.70

British Sky Broadcasting Group
503.00 13.00 2.65

Go-Ahead Group
974.50 24.00 2.52

Aquarius Platinum Ld Com Shs USD0.05
179.25 4.25 2.43

Top 10 losers

value change %

3i Group
212.75 38.50 15.32

Lloyds Banking Group
89.00 11.90 11.79

Informa Group
242.00 26.50 9.87

FRESNILLO (WI)
309.00 29.00 8.58

COOKSON GRP.
77.75 7.25 8.53

Man Group USD0.03428571
203.75 18.00 8.12

FirstGroup
274.75 24.00 8.03

Ferrexpo
49.25 4.00 7.51

Forth Ports
741.00 58.50 7.32

Shanks Group
99.50 7.75 7.23

Winners and Losers are drawn from the set of FTSE 350 equities

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The average house price fell by 2% in December from the previous month to £158,846, the figures based on completed transactions showed.

Separately, a survey by mortgage lender Nationwide suggested that house prices across the UK fell by 1.3% in January.

Job security worries were set to put people off buying new homes, it said.

The Land Registry figures are based on sales completions and so lag behind those supplied by mortgage lenders.

ANNUAL HOUSE PRICE FALLS IN ENGLAND AND WALES
South West: 15.6%
South East: 14.9%
East: 13.6%
West Midlands: 13.6%
East Midlands: 13.5%
London: 12.9%
Yorkshire and Humber: 11.9%
North West: 10.9%
North East: 10.8%
Wales: 8.6%
Source: Land Registry

House price surveys explained
Recession tracker: House prices

The most up-to-date figures from the Registry revealed that in October, the number of completed house sales in England and Wales fell to 41,123, down 60% from 102,597 in October 2007.

In London, only 4,604 home sales went through, compared with 13,354 in the same month a year before.

‘Hesitant’

Nationwide said the rate of price falls in January had eased slightly when compared with December’s 2.5% slide.

But the decline took the annual rate of fall in house prices to 16.6%, from 15.9% in December.

Nationwide, which uses prices agreed by its mortgage customers, put the average house cost at £150,501.

That was down from £153,048 a month ago and £35,543 below the peak of October 2007.

“The deepening economic recession and financial market turbulence continued to weigh on housing market sentiment and activity,” said Nationwide’s senior economist, Martin Gahbauer.

“While the fall in house prices and the parallel reduction in interest rates has probably made many households curious about what is currently available in the market, many are likely to be hesitant to commit in a recessionary environment of rising unemployment and increasing uncertainty about future incomes,” he said.

Though the number of enquiries from would-be buyers was “recovering quite strongly”, this was not translating into mortgage approvals, Mr Gahbauer added.

Nationwide said the housing market was unlikely to improve until the economy stopped shrinking, with continued restrictions of credit reducing the amount of people taking out mortgages.

The UK economy is now deemed to be in recession having recorded two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The Bank of England has been cutting the base rate sharply in recent months in an effort to stimulate the economy.

Even though prices are looking attractive now, the question is will people want to commit to a purchase in such an uncertain economic climate?

Toby Goldblatt
Rubii.co.uk

However, while there was “little prospect for noticeable improvement in the short term”, historically it took time for interest rate cuts to filter through to the wider economy, Nationwide said.

Gloomy messages

Until the lenders started to make mortgages more affordable and readily available, all signs of interest among potential buyers was “ultimately academic”, said David Smith, senior partner at Dreweatt Neate estate agent.

“While there are signs of interest in the market, with interest rates and house prices very low, this amounts to nothing in the absence of credit.”

Meanwhile, the gloomy messages coming from the IMF and out of the World Economic Forum in Davos suggested that the recession could last for some time, said Toby Goldblatt of financial adviser search engine Rubii.co.uk.

“Even though prices are looking attractive now, the question is will people want to commit to a purchase in such an uncertain economic climate?”

Police said about 800 people from the Lindsey and Conoco Phillips refineries in North Lincolnshire were involved in the unofficial strike.

Staff at Lindsey Oil Refinery walked out on Wednesday when a contractor took on 90 overseas workers.

Total, which owns the plant, said there would be no direct redundancies as a result of the contract being awarded.

The dispute began on Wednesday when 300 workers walked off a construction site at Lindsey Oil Refinery.

The work was won by IREM, an Italian-based contractor, which brought in its own workforce.

A Unite union shop steward, who did not wish to be named, said they were angry that foreigners were being employed by the contractor, Jacobs, at a time when British workers were being laid off.

‘No redundancies’

He said hundreds of workers at the neighbouring Conoco Phillips refinery had joined them outside the gates of Lindsey Oil Refinery on Thursday.

He had also received reports of wildcat action at other sites, including the Dimlington and Easington gas terminals in East Yorkshire.

Lindsey Oil Refinery owner Total said its main refining operations on the 500-acre site remained unaffected by the action.

“We recognise the concerns of contractors but it is important to note that there will be no direct redundancies as a result of this contract being awarded,” a Total statement said.

“We have been a major local employer for 40 years and have always enjoyed a good relationship with our staff and contractors.

“We are disappointed they have taken this action and we hope the situation will be resolved as soon as possible and the contractors return to work.”

‘Peaceful’ protest

The site on Eastfield Road is the third largest refinery in the country, processing more than 200,000 barrels a day.

It opened 40 years ago to process oil from North Sea wells.

Nobody was available for comment from Conoco Phillips.

Humberside Police said: “At this moment in time there are approximately 800 peaceful protesters at the site.

“Police resources will be in attendance at the site as well as the surrounding area throughout the day.

“I would reassure our local communities that our main aim is to ensure the safety of both local businesses and public as well as those taking part in the protest in order to minimise disruption and to keep traffic flowing.”

This demonstration had already affected local traffic with road closures in place at Eastfield Road.

Rossoneri defender Luca Antonini is thankful that the Brazilian player will remain with the club and believes that the fans had plenty to do with his ultimate decision.

“I think that Ricky [Kaka]‘s choice was because of the fans, because he saw all of their affection. I ahd never seen a display like that before,” the 26-year-old revealed, according to Tuttomercatoweb.

“There were many people in front of his hosue singing and seven million people sent him notes of warmth and friendliness.”

It’s been suggested that Kaka would have earned much more than he does with Milan had he moves to Eastlands and that some of his family would have preferred he accepted the move.

“Money is important, but not everything. he already earns so much,” claimed Antonini. “Now, I have seen that he is quiet, relaxed, and happy. He’s already lived through all this tension. It was not an easy choice, as it involves the fate of his family.”

Antonini has made six appearances in Serie A for Milan this season.

Manchester City have opened talks with Italian side AC Milan over the possible transfer of superstar playmaker Kaka.

A City delegation has been in Milan and reportedly made a bid in the region of 100m euros, with a weekly wage of £500,000 on offer for the Brazilian.

A report on the website of Mediaset, a TV company owned by Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi, suggested City want the 26-year-old “at all costs”.

The Eastlands club has so far refused to comment officially on the story.

A City spokeswoman told BBC Radio Manchester: “We have been linked with in excess of 70 names that could have been coming in this transfer window. 606: DEBATE
To pay someone £500,000 per week to kick a football, no matter how brilliantly, perfectly illustrates just how insane our world actually is

BBC Sport’s Paul Fletcher

“We are not going to be drawn into any speculation on any names, no matter who they might be.”

Meanwhile, AC Milan confirmed on Wednesday that their chief executive Adriano Galliani had met officials from City on Tuesday to discuss Kaka’s future.

In a statement, the Serie A club said: “Galliani received a delegation from Manchester City yesterday in Milan as a gesture of courtesy like always in these cases. There are no talks at the moment.”

The current record for a player’s signature is £46m when France’s Zinedine Zidane moved from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001.

Kaka joined Serie A giants Milan from Sao Paulo in 2003 and has since won the league title, Champions League and Club World Cup.

The attacking midfielder has also picked up the Ballon d’Or and Fifa World Player of the Year awards in 2007.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, estimated to be worth £15bn, took over as City owner in September 2008 and extensive funds have been made available to manager Mark Hughes.

However, he has only secured the services of Wayne Bridge in January’s transfer window, with bids rejected for West Ham forward Craig Bellamy and Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz.

The four-man delegation who travelled to Italy to initiate talks with the Milan officials is believed to have included executive chairman Garry Cook and two representatives of the Sheikh.

BBC Radio 5 Live’s senior football reporter Ian Dennis says the reported move underlines Sheikh Mansour’s “desire to transform Manchester City”, although he added “actually pulling off what would be an incredible coup is another matter entirely”.

With the club struggling in 15th position in the Premier League, it would give City an incredible boost if they were to seal the deal for one of the world’s best players.

However, it is thought the move to target Kaka is being driven by the club’s top officials rather than Hughes himself.

Having started his career with Sao Paulo where he scored 58 goals, Kaka moved to Milan for £5m and has scored 86 goals in 244 appearances. RECORD TRANSFERS
£47m Zinedine Zidane (Juventus – Real Madrid)
£37m Luis Figo (Barcelona – Real Madrid)
£34m Hernan Jorge Crespo (Parma – Lazio)
£32.5m Robinho (Real Madrid – Man City)
£31m Christian Vieri (Lazio – Inter Milan)
£30.75m Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham – Manchester United)

He has also picked up 62 caps for Brazil scoring 23 goals having made his debut against Bolivia in January 2002 and featured in the 2002 World Cup winning squad.

Kaka is on a contract at the San Siro until 2013 and although he stated in February that he wanted to remain at Milan for the rest of his career, he did hint at a desire to play in the Premier League – which he has described as the “best championship in the world”.

Following Robinho’s surprise £32.5 move to Eastlands in September and not, as expected, to Chelsea, Kaka’s spokesman Diogo Kotscho warned City it would need more than a large cheque to persuade the player to move.

“Kaka wouldn’t do anything based on money,” Kotscho told Corriere dello Sport. “He would never do something like Robinho, who, just to earn more, contented himself with a solution that was not a winning one.”

Italian football expert Gabrielle Marcotti told BBC Radio 5 Live he believed the City delegation had begun conversations with Milan representatives talking about signing goalkeeper Nelson Dida.

“As I understand it, they went to Milan supposedly under the ruse of talking about another player and in the course of the conversation they brought up Kaka and said they would be prepared to spend this much,” Marcotti said.

The latest jobs will go in retail and commercial banking. The company said it hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Like many banks worldwide, Barclays has been hit hard by the credit crunch.

According to the Centre For Economic and Business Research, 34,000 financial sector jobs could be lost this year after 28,000 were cut in 2007.

In total, Barclays currently employs 69,900 people in the UK and 156,400 globally.

Three hundred managers will be made redundant while 150 salaried agency staff will also lose their jobs.

The firm, which was bought by Tata from Ford for £1.7bn last year, said the action was to combat the credit crunch and a “severe reduction in demand”.

Based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, it employs about 15,000 people in Castle Bromwich, Coventry and Solihull in the West Midlands and Halewood, Merseyside.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said the government was “disappointed”.

No bonuses

He added: “Jaguar Land Rover’s decision today reflects the continued downturn in the market and that is a reflection of what is happening more generally in the global economy.”

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson confirmed the government was looking into a possible rescue package for the car industry.

It is critical that Jaguar Land Rover becomes a more efficient and dynamic organisation

David Smith, chief executive, Jaguar Land Rover

‘A year to forget’ for carmakers
The Jaguar Land Rover dilemma

Jaguar Land Rover chief executive David Smith said he did not expect sales to return to normal levels “for some time”.

He said the firm needed to become more efficient so it could invest in new models and technology when the market improved.

He added: “It is only right and proper that our response to the unavoidable impact of the credit crunch and a severe reduction in demand includes actions across all grades and functions in the company.

“It is critical that Jaguar Land Rover becomes a more efficient and dynamic organisation to face up to the challenges that we will meet in the years ahead.”

The company said managers would not receive any bonuses in 2009 and management pay increases had been deferred until 1 October “at the earliest”.

It said it had begun consulting with unions on the proposed redundancy programme.

Jaguars are made at Halewood and Castle Bromwich while Land Rovers are produced at Halewood and Solihull.

A wood veneer plant at Coventry supplies both marques while the company has two research and development centres in Coventry and Gaydon. Managers are spread across all the sites.

Last November, the firm axed 850 agency IT and engineering staff and said it was in talks with the government over a possible bail out.

Tata has also said it will inject tens of millions of pounds into the company.

The annual Christmas break was extended last year due to the fall in demand.

Land Rover sales were down by 30% throughout 2008 although Jaguar’s sales rose by almost 9% over the same period, which the company put down to its new XF model launched last year.

In return for a fee, the state will, in effect, insure banks against companies defaulting on loan repayments.

But there are concerns that £20bn will not be enough to get the banks lending sufficient funds to help businesses get access to much needed cash.

The Conservatives want ministers to go further and underwrite £50bn of loans.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the proposals would target “genuine business needs”.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the measures as “real help now to deal with specific problems”.

New loans

Central to the plan is a £10bn Working Capital Scheme designed to help banks lend much needed capital to small and medium-sized businesses.

The government will provide guarantees on 50% of £20bn short term loans to businesses with a turnover of up to £500m.

“The £10bn injection to banks represents a guarantee to enable them to free up working capital to sustain exisiting loans and create new ones,” Lord Mandelson said.

Twenty billion pounds is not a very large number in the context of the problem

Jon Moulton, managing partner Alchemy Partners

“A condition of [banks] getting the money will be that they negotiate with the government on what capital will be freed up,” he added.

He said that some of the capital made available as a result of the guarantee had to be used for new lending.

Bank lending would be targeted at “innovative, viable and growing [companies] that are finding it difficult to access working capital”, he added.

He also conceded that there would inevitably be some defaulting on loans, and that £225m had been put aside to cover repayments that could not be made.

The government is also setting up an Enterprise Guarantee Scheme as part of the support package. This will secure up to £1.3bn in additional bank loans to companies with a turnover of up to £25m.

This money will go to “smaller, viable, credit worthy firms hit by the downturn,” said Lord Mandelson. These companies will be able to borrow a maximum of £1m, with 75% guaranteed by the government. The money can be used for working capital – to pay wages for example – or for new investment, he said.

The banks must certify that these loans are in addition to loans that they would otherwise make.

Any move to get banks lending again will be seen as good news at this bleak time

David Frost
Director-General, British Chambers of Commerce

Send us your comments

Finally, the government is setting up a £75m Capital for Enterprise Fund specifically for businesses with high levels of debt that have “exhausted traditional forms of financing”, said Lord Mandelson.

Fifty million pounds will be provided by the government and £25m by the major banks.

Lord Mandelson also said that the government was in discussions with credit insurance providers about providing similar guarantees on money owed by small businesses to their suppliers.

“Businesses are critically in need of cash-flow. Any move to get banks lending again will be seen as good news at this bleak time,” said the British Chamber of Commerce’s director-general David Frost.

“A government promise to guarantee individual loans to businesses is not only sensible, it’s crucial.”

Too little

However, some commentators believe that larger guarantees will be needed.

“Twenty billion pounds is not a very large number in the context of the problem. I would be a lot happier if the scheme was a lot larger,” said Jon Moulton, managing partner of private equity firm Alchemy Partners.

Martin Weale at the Institute of Economic and Social Research said: “It’s been clear for months that something like this is needed. I’m not sure it is on an adequate scale. My guess is that it won’t be enough.

“After a few months it will look like another of the government’s half measures.”

“This is a useful contribution but it won’t fix the problem,” said BBC business editor Robert Peston.

‘Expensive mistake’

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the government appeared to be offering a belated version of the £50bn scheme floated by the Tories several weeks ago.

“Let us hope that they will properly implement this Conservative policy rather than a pale imitation, or else they run the risk of repeating the mistakes of their expensive temporary VAT cut and achieving nothing,” he said.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: “The government should stop messing around with stunts and wheezes and ensure that the banks owned or part-owned by taxpayers operate as state banks maintaining lending for the economy.”

Business failures

The British Bankers Association, which represents the banks, said its latest data showed that in October and November, growth in lending to small businesses slowed towards the end of 2008, though it remained above 2007 levels.

Business leaders have said that the lack of available finance has played a part in the downturn of the UK economy, which the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) described as a “frightening deterioration” towards the end of 2008.

Separate data from Equifax found that the number of business failures in 2008 was 18.2% higher than in 2007.