Today’s Ashes snub

THE BBC’s Today programme can set the news agenda, but not so on sport where, after repeating the previous day’s racing preview during Royal Ascot, they led their 7.25am sports bulletin yesterday with a build-up to golf’s women’s British Open at Turnberry despite a great Ashes day for England. A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘ Today covered the cricket in all its sports news slots, but started at 7.25 with the golf as (golfer) Henni Zuel was booked as a guest.’

IT’S a pity that Shane Warne, a boring repetitive cricket pundit on Sky Sports, doesn’t demonstrate the same creativity on air that he shows when aiming insults at your

Sports Agenda columnist. These have varied over Ashes series from ‘muppet’, ‘k*** jockey’ to ‘f***wit’ as in ‘F*** off you f***wit nobody likes you’ when I approached the Sky Sports TV booth looking for someone else. Warne’s Sky employers already rate his Aussie team-mate Ricky Ponting as a far better analyst. ENGLAND’s football agents, up in arms at the way FIFA have allowed a free-for-all by abandoning their regulation, will take some encouragement that Michel Platini, hot favourite to be elected FIFA president in February, intends to bring back regulation of agents by the world body.

His other priorities, in putting football issues rather than politicking at the top of his policy making, are a reform of the football calendar and transfer windows. Platini, who doesn’t want UEFA personnel to monopolise Zurich if he takes over, is likely to appoint a non-European as FIFA secretary-general instead of Jerome Valcke. That would mean Platini’s close aide, Gianni Infantino, remaining UEFA CEO.