Football League foul-up

THE Football League scored a shambolic owngoal yesterday by going all the way to the sponsors’ home in Bangkok to stage the first-round draw of the Carabao Cup. It turned into a fiasco.

First, the size of the numerous logos promoting Thai energy drink Carabao on the backdrop breached Ofcom regulations, so the draw could only be broadcast on the Sky Sports website and other social media, rather than Sky Sports News.

The over-the-top Carabao presence saw their chief executive drawing out the teams.

The streaming connection was constantly lost, as was the audio on Facebook Live, while wooden Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey could not have been a worse draw presenter. He mumbled ‘foreign’ before correcting himself to announce ‘Forest Green Rovers’.

Charlton Athletic appeared twice on a graphic, while the hapless Harvey even said how relieved everyone was at how smoothly it was all going.

The EFL apologised for ‘a number of third-party technical issues that affected coverage. There were inaccuracies as a result of human error’.

The second-round draw will not be in Thailand.

THE decision by McDonald’s to pull out of their £50m top-tier Olympic sponsorship has brought some relief to the IOC because of the flak they receive for having a fast-food backer. McDonald’s will not be replaced by a similar food retailer.