Daily Mail

ENGLAND PLAY IT FOR LAUGHS WITH CORDEN

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ENGLAND players have teamed up with James Corden in a World Cup comedy sketch to be shown on the TV host’s CBS series The Late Late Show. Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Jamie Vardy took a break from England’s World Cup preparatio­ns to film with Corden at their Watford hotel. The FA hope it will help increase support for England in the USA.

ENGLAND players and superstar TV host James Corden are combining to win World Cup support in the United States.

Actor-turned-broadcaste­r Corden, who has become a major star across the Atlantic with his CBS talk series The Late, Late Show, has recorded a comedy sketch with some of Gareth Southgate’s squad to be shown on his programme.

The players who did the filming with Corden at the Grove Hotel outside Watford included captain Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Jamie Vardy.

The hope is that showing the footballer­s in an amusing light with Corden will help build a bigger fan base for England for the World Cup, especially as the USA team failed to qualify.

Perhaps fortunatel­y for the players, the sketch does not include any car-pool karaoke where Corden drives around Los Angeles getting famous musicians to sing along to their hits with him in the car.

The FA are keen to show the players in a more relaxed setting than the frenzied atmosphere of football’s post-match interview mixed zone.

Corden has had a relationsh­ip with the FA since 2010, when he shared a bath with David Beckham for a Sport Relief sketch.

THE claim that Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius was suffering from concussion when he made the two blunders that decided the Champions League final comes from the same Massachuse­tts General Hospital that happens to have received a seven-figure donation from Liverpool owner JW Henry’s foundation. His $1million gift last year was the largest his foundation gave to charitable causes in the Boston area.

IT REMAINS to be seen what Russian government reaction will be to criticism of the host country during the World Cup. But there was a surprising­ly relaxed attitude at the World Cup draw in Moscow. Football legends including Gordon Banks (right), who took part in the ceremony, were briefed by FIFA to beware of the pesky English press in the mixed zone interview area. However, the celebritie­s had carte blanche to say what they wanted about Mother Russia.

GREAT credit to the FA, for a change, for putting up all 23 members of Gareth Southgate’s squad for media interview at St George’s Park yesterday despite some cynics — including your Sports Agenda columnist — saying it would never happen. The Super Bowl-style set-up — with players sitting at separate tables — worked just as the FA had hoped, even to the extent of the squad not rushing straight off when the allotted 45 minutes was up. No player was ignored either, although most interest was centred on Raheem Sterling, in front of whose table an English-style queue began to form half an hour before the start.

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