Lord’s royal appointment

THE Duke of Edinburgh, who limits his engagements at the age of 95, will open the new £25million Warner Stand at Lord’s on May 3.

The original stand was opened by the Duke of Norfolk in 1958 and had to be modernised after being described by the ICC as the ‘second worst in world cricket’ in terms of facilities for officials. Building work on the refurbishment was delayed after two discoveries of asbestos during the demolition process.

Meanwhile, the long-awaited review into further Lord’s renovations being sent out to members is to be delayed for a fortnight.

This follows a letter from Property developers Rifkind Levy clarifying their Morley Plan to pay MCC £100m to build two residential towers at the Nursery End of the ground. A NEW union for football agents has been formed as an alternative to the Association of Football Agents, which is considered to be mainly interested in looking after the big players in the business. The Society of Football Intermediaries and Agents, to be chaired by top lawyer Liz Ellen, head of sport at Mishcon de Reya, will concentrate on embracing all middle men and women. And the formation of SOFIA has been welcomed by the football authorities, who have had their run-ins with the AFA. THE designers of Everton’s new ground are at the crucial stage of deciding where the bank-rolling corporate hospitality seats should be situated.

The middle ring of boxes around the ground at Wembley is seen as diluting the atmosphere and the preference now is for restaurant hospitality to go with the corporate ticket rather than boxes.

Meanwhile, Tottenham are still expected to confirm they will play at Wembley next season having asked for an extension until the end of April just to be sure everything is on track for their new stadium to open at the start of the 2018-19 season.