Don't write off the Worthington Cup

THIS may not be the right moment to make a case for the Worthington Cup when Bolton - yes Bolton - spurned the chance of a semi-final place by making eight changes from a team that weren't even good enough to beat Derby last weekend.

There's the rub. In an ideal world Sam Allardyce would have loved to have won the trophy. But the Bolton manager's recurrent nightmare, as it has to be given his club's yo-yo history, is that their run of bad form will lead again to relegation.

His priority is to stay in the top flight. Is that so wrong? And is it a reason for throwing in the towel on the League Cup? I don't think so.

Particularly as it's not unknown for teams to play ducks and drakes with the FA Cup, and that's never been a reason for scrapping that competition.

There are plenty of good sides for whom the Worthington Cup is far from worthless and I watched two of them on Wednesday. The game between Newcastle and Chelsea was played with skill and passion and, although the Bridge was only two-thirds full, there was a full- blooded Cup-tie atmosphere.

Blackburn and Tottenham want to win it, too. Any of the three remaining Premiership clubs would be worthy winners, and good prospects in Europe next season, and Watford or Sheffield Wednesday, who have still to play their quarterfinal, will add the necessary underdog element.

It's no good some managers saying the competition is devalued when they are the ones devaluing it. If it's not good enough for Manchester United or Arsenal, so what?

To suggest, as Arsene Wenger did, that the UEFA Cup place should be offered instead to a mid-table Premiership side is to enter the world of Lewis Carroll: all have won and all must have prizes. Far better a team gets into Europe by winning a trophy than by finishing mid-table.

There are bigger issues at stake. The Football League estimates the competition is worth 80million a year to its members, and provides a quarter of the income of Second and Third Division clubs.

As for fan apathy, attendance is actually up 12 per cent this year.

As I predicted, the Premiership has pulled the wings off the Phoenix League. So is it too much to ask that those clubs help keep football's pyramid healthy by playing their part in a League Cup?

It shouldn't be, particularly as there's serious money in it. A two-legged televised semi-final where each team keeps all their home gate, must be worth a million apiece. While the lowest estimate I can get of the value of reaching the final is 750,000.

Good money, particularly for teams who aren't in Europe, or have carelessly allowed themselves to be knocked out early on. Which is why Newcastle and Chelsea really tried on Wednesday, and why the Worthington Cup still deserves its place in the great order of things.

Army binge turns the stomach

THERE is no point in condemning Robbie Fowler for getting involved in yet another late-night bust-up.

It's about as futile as damning a dog for using a lamppost. If you take Fowler on a pub crawl something bad will happen, even if, as his apologists claim, his worst crime on Tuesday night was choosing the wrong friend to go home with.

Fowler's an idiot off the pitch and always will be. The real fault lies with Leeds.

I like Peter Ridsdale. He's a transparently decent bloke, and able too.

And amid the torrent of badly chosen words that flows out of David O'Leary, there's probably a nice guy trying to get out as well.

But what on earth possessed these two, at this of all times, at the very moment two of their players were on trial for drunken violence, to allow the entire squad to go out on what seems nothing more than a boozy night out?

And why, while other young men paid a fraction of what these footballers get are risking their lives for real in Afghanistan, did they permit the players to dress up in combat fatigues and carry toy guns?

One, it was reported, I hope wrongly, was even dressed as a Nazi.

Is there no room for taste or judgment at Elland Road?

The club sounds aggrieved that anyone should want to photograph Fowler asleep in his combat gear in the back of a cab at midnight merely, of course, because he was tired after a hard day's training (not to mention all those chats with Stephen Hawking about the fundamental laws of the universe I made that bit up) and not even remotely because this professional athlete had had a few too many.

Whatever the reason, it's grotesque that at such a time such a club should have organised or tolerated such an event, which was bound to attract adverse publicity.

The lasting impression of Tuesday night is of footballers so full of conceit, and loaded with money, they think normal rules don't apply.

And a chairman so busy being Mr Nice Guy he can't crack the whip.

Peter had better be careful or he'll start reminding more people than me of the French revolutionary Ledru Rollin, who as the mob were rampaging through Paris, observed: "I must follow them for I am their leader."

Dons faithful should face home truths

THE predicted demo by fans of 50 clubs at Selhurst Park on Sunday to show solidarity with the Wimbledon supporters' campaign against a move to Milton Keynes has already been commended in these pages.

But I feel a word of caution coming.

When similar solidarity was shown to Brighton, I used my Radio 5 Live Six-O-Six phone-in to publicise the campaign because Brighton was a club being dragged towards the abyss by the greed and mismanagement of the directors selling the ground for redevelopment before making proper arrangements for a new stadium.

It was obvious that, once properly led, the club would flourish again, and it has.

But in Wimbledon's case it's not the board but the fans who threaten to push the club over the edge by being entirely unrealistic about the future.

Wimbledon have no home of their own, no chance of returning to Merton, and with support at around 7,000, little prospect of even retaining long-term their First Division status, let alone get back into the Premiership. Bear in mind their present league position is 17th.

Rather than demonstrate, it would be far more constructive for each Wimbledon die-hard to find two mates to take along to every game.

Then the club might have a secure financial base.

I know Sam Hammam is no longer flavour of the month but he wasn't wrong when he said: "Wimbledon has only got a future if it moves from Selhurst Park."

You can kill by kindness, and that is the most likely outcome of the demo on Sunday.

Game's up, give it to Wembley

SHAMELESS to the last, the Government is said to be putting pressure on the Football Association to announce a new competition for the location of the National Stadium.

This is because it doesn't have the guts to tell Birmingham and the others that the game's over.

The FA response should be clear cut: no cash, no say. So much time, money (maybe 180million already) and effort has been expended on Wembley, it is in truth the only practical solution. The sooner they get on with it the better.

Ministers should remember the old adage: if you can't help, don't hinder.

Let Big Brother watch football

EVERY television replay showed Slavisa Jokanovic had a perfectly good goal disallowed for Chelsea against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

Last month, Alan Shearer was sent off for elbowing Charlton's Jon Fortune but the moment the referee saw the video he immediately rescinded the red card as it was obvious no contact had been made.

So again the question has to be asked, why not use the technology at the time? Shearer's sending off probably cost Newcastle two points.

Sunday's disallowed goal certainly cost Chelsea two. It's daft to perpetuate such errors when these days they can so readily be avoided.

Copyright 2001
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