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Welcome to the 2006 ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø Awards. There are just 66 days from the night of the awards on 4 April until the first match of the 2006 World Cup, which kicks off in Munich in early June. And as billions of people look on, I wonder if they'll know that Munich's magnificent new Allianz Arena stadium was engineered by British consultant Arup?

Just like the World Cup, the ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø Awards are all about celebrating the best. But they also have a more serious purpose. As you may already know, ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø is supporting the Willow Foundation as its charity for this year's event. It was created by former Arsenal and Scotland goalkeeper Bob Wilson, and his wife Megs, in memory of their daughter, Anna who died of cancer aged 31. As a friend of Bob's for many years, I know the tremendous work done by the foundation, so I would like to thank everybody who dug deep for this very worthy cause.

Can I please also implore everybody in the industry to do all you can to support the England team in its build-up to the World Cup? It may be 40 years since we last walked off with the trophy, but if we all get behind the team and support its efforts I'm sure we have a good chance of having a great tournament. We've had recent successes in the cricket and the rugby, so let's all get behind the England football team for this World Cup.

Thanks once again, and well done to all the winners.