New boss needs to be English, experienced and called Terry Venables -

Sir Alex Ferguson has ruled himself out of the running for the England job and has instead offered his advice on who the candidate should be.

"The next England manager should meet three vital requirements - he needs to be English, he needs top-quality experience and his name should be Terry Venables."

Ferguson, the most successful manager in English football, added his weight to the groundswell of opinion that is calling for the return of England's Euro 96 boss.

"Terry Venables knows what it is like to be English, to play for his country and support his country," said the Manchester United boss.

"To my mind, a foreign manager just would not have that same passion."

Ferguson also fears that the England job is too demanding for a raw, inexperienced coach.

He added: "I know there are bosses such as Peter Taylor who have shown great potential - but managing England is no place for learning your trade.

"It is not the kind of environment where you can have potential or continue on the learning curve.

"You have to be experienced at the highest level, with a status that demands immediate respect from even the most senior players."

lEngland expects, page 8 oA massive fight broke out only minutes after the start of a league game between Red Star and Partizan in Belgrade yesterday, leaving dozens injured and forcing the abandonment of the match. The brawl followed the political uprising which forced out former president Slobodan Milosevic.

Just three minutes after the match began, flares were fired from a section occupied by Partizan fans, followed by a stampede onto the field. Red Star fans then began throwing rocks and bottles.

The ensuing mass brawl led to several people being taken away on stretchers. Partizan's coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic, player Sasa Ilic and club official Nenad Bjekovic were injured, as well as 35 fans and two police officers.

Last month, Red Star had to play Leicester in Vienna instead of Belgrade after Uefa decided the political situation in the country was too volatile. Celta Vigo are due to travel to Belgrade next week to face Red Star in a second round Uefa Cup tie.

oIn Turkey, Rangers' Champions League opponents, Gala-tasaray, warmed up for Wednesday's match at Ibrox with a confortable 4-1 home league win over Siirt Jet-PA.

oReal Madrid moved to the top of the Spanish league with a 3-0 win over defending champions Deportivo Coruna.

Raul opened the scoring on 19 minutes for Real, a Fernando Hierro penalty on the stroke of half-time made it two, and a late effort from Guti sealed the three points.

But Real were upstaged by Barcelona who slammed in six first-half goals away to Real Sociedad. Two goals apiece from Rivaldo and Alfonso were followed by strikes from Luis Enrique and Simao.

Rivaldo missed three great chances to complete his hat-trick in a second half in which there was no more scoring.

After five games, Real Madrid have 11 points, one more than Deportivo and also Valencia who drew 1-1 at Villarreal.

oNantes were the top scorers in France when they ended a run of five matches without a win with a 5-0 thumping of Strasbourg, Tahiti- born striker Marama Vahirua scoring two of their goals.

St Etienne's new coach, John Toshack, saw his side lose 2-1 away to Sedan while Metz and Troyes shared the spoils in a 2-2 draw.

oBayern Munich's troubles continued when they crashed 1-0 away to Bundesliga new boys, Energie Cottbus.

Andreas Brehme celebrated his first match in charge of Kaiserslautern with a 4-0 win at 1860 Munich. Harry Koch opened the scoring for the visitors in the 14th minute from the penalty spot. Austrian defender Martin Stranzl's dismissal just after half-time for his second yellow card added to 1860's woes.

Schalke went top after their 4-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt, while elsewhere, there were goals galore as Werder Bremen drew 3-3 with Bayer Leverkusen and VFB Stuttgart and Hamburg also shared six goals in a hard-fought draw.

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