Barton’s walkout threat

IT HAs emerged that the upheaval pundit Joey Barton has caused since joining talksPoRT includes delivering a remarkable ultimatum just 20 minutes before his first appearance on the Monday night Kick Off show on discovering sunbet were the programme sponsors.

Barton, serving a 13-month FA ban for serial betting breaches, said either he walked out or sunbet were dropped. Remarkably, talksPoRT cut all references to sunbet from Barton’s debut show before switching him to Alan Brazil’s breakfast programme.

THE Football League have gone to great lengths to ensure their advert for a new non-executive director to replace Richard Bowker is politically correct, even though the appointment is likely to be a woman to meet governance requirements. It states that qualified applicants will receive consideration irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion or beliefs, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age or with regard to pregnancy or maternity. A Football League spokesman said they employ best practice recruitment processes.

GORDON BANKS has made a Lazarus-like recovery after mistakenly being named at the Northwest Football Awards as having died this year. The World Cup-winning goalkeeper, 79, is assisting at next week’s World Cup draw.