Lord Coe braced for Warner’s memoirs
UK ATHLETICS chairman ed Warner will cause trepidation throughout track and field with his plan to write an account of his time in the sport.
The book Powerplay, to be published by Yellow Jersey Press in May 2018, will concentrate on the business of sport and where the money goes behind the scenes, told through a number of case studies involving the World Cup, olympics and bidding for major events.
Warner, who steps down at the end of the year having been an outspoken leader of UKA for a decade, will certainly be forthright about his various confrontations that notably include a difficult relationship with IAAF president lord Coe.
The manuscript, which Warner is writing himself, has to be with the publishers by september, giving the author time to include his view of the 2017 World Athletics Championship to be staged at the london stadium in August — an event that will define Warner’s 10 years at the helm one way or the other. THE
RFU really do sell their souls to the highest bidder on the commercial front. An extraordinary 19 England players out of the match-day 23 for the Scotland clash had sponsorship duties to carry out after the match. The RFU have contractual obligations to provide players to their own sponsors, Six Nations backers RBS, the Rugby Players Association and their official corporate hospitality providers. No wonder the RFU will attempt to limit player appearances when the sponsorships are renewed. CHILLAXING in a Twickenham car park before the scotland game was former prime minister David Cameron (right), enjoying the car-boot hospitality of his loyal supporter, PR magnate Peter Gummer, now lord Chadlington. And Cameron, on more secure sporting footing at Twickenham than when he can’t make up his mind whether he supports Aston Villa or West Ham, was happy to give his list of favourite sports which are, in order: tennis, cricket, rugby, golf and football. YOU
would expect members of the England Rugby Internationals Club to have been preoccupied with the Calcutta Cup ahead of what turned out to be a very one-sided game. However, the conversation in their Twickenham facility was reportedly dominated by the problem at the stadium of constant visits to the bars interrupting the enjoyment of those there for the rugby rather than the drink. The RFU will discuss the subject after the Six Nations but do not want to lose the cash flow from the bars staying open. One possibility is ordering drink brought to your seat through an app.
Faulkner’s Olympic test
THE FA are banking on their new women’s football performance director David Faulkner helping to persuade the other home nations to back a Team GB women’s team in Tokyo.
Faulkner’s experience with Team GB hockey is seen as an important asset in explaining that such a set-up doesn’t affect the four countries’ sporting independence.
He will visit the other Team GB constituents along with Baroness sue Campbell, the FA’s head of women’s football. she is the leading light in the blueprint to double women’s football participation by 2020.
Meanwhile, the most bizarre aspect of the women’s football boom is that england’s most famous club Manchester United still do not have a professional women’s team while Manchester City have the most progressive. City supremacy and cost are seen as United’s petty reasons. CONSPICUOUS
by his absence from the FA women’s strategy launch was former long-time FA women’s committee chairman Ray Kiddell. He was invited but is on the FA naughty step for crass remarks to BBC 5 Live during the reform debate about a Jew joining a Muslim and a Buddhist on the FA council.