Football is evolving - not dying

Novelist Mark Twain had set off on a speaking tour around the world back in the 1890s to raise money to cover a raft of debt he had built up in his native United States.

Shortly after arriving in London, word quickly spread back home that he had taken gravely ill and passed away. So sure it was true, one major US paper went so far as to write and print his obituary.

When the clearly alive Twain was told about this by reporters, he is said to have quipped: “The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”