POKER-FACED GARETH
Southgate will give nothing away, even if it’s a dream draw
HOWEVER the balls come out in this afternoon’s World Cup draw, Gareth Southgate intends to give nothing away.
England’s manager plans to wear what he says is ‘a reasonable poker face’ and leave the cut-throat gestures, as he joked here yesterday, to the FA chairman.
That was Greg Dyke’s response four years ago to the realisation that England would meet Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in Brazil the following summer. He feared the national side were doomed and, as it turned out, he was right.
There is a whole spectrum of possibilities later today, very much a game of Russian roulette, and Southgate is sure to prefer some to others however relaxed he claims to be about events in the concert hall of the State Kremlin Palace.
Based purely on current FIFA rankings, a group comprising Germany, Costa Rica and Nigeria would represent a pretty daunting task, as would Brazil, Sweden and Nigeria. A more favourable draw would see England meet Russia, Senegal and Saudi Arabia.
A group involving the hosts might be the stuff of nightmares for the authorities after the clashes between Russian and English supporters in Marseille last year but for Southgate it would probably be a welcome outcome.
With England in Pot 2, Southgate might wince behind that fixed expression if they end up with Sweden, Denmark, Costa Rica or Iceland from the third pot.
In a final rehearsal last night, England were drawn with Poland, Senegal and Australia. But the quality of the opposition is only one concern in a country as vast as Russia. There are 24 potential itineraries, with travelling distances from St Petersburg (the nearest airport to England’s base camp in Repino) ranging from 1,820 miles to 6,024 miles across the three group games. The most gruelling would be a Group C scenario that would see England play in Ekaterinburg, Sochi and Saransk.
Add to that the fact that there will be four different time zones and Sochi can get very warm in the summer compared to St Petersburg — up to a 20-degree swing — and the demands on England’s players could be significant.
The choice of a sleepy seaside town close to the border with Finland has surprised some observers who think England’s players will not just be bored but will be disadvantaged by cool temperatures and time spent travelling. This week it took two hours in a taxi just to get from St Petersburg’s airport to the England hotel.
Southgate said: ‘FIFA have set venues so they pair hotels with training grounds and you work through the brochure. We wanted to get the right balance around the location in terms of travel, in terms of climate, and the quality of the training ground. It was important for us that we had a hotel with exclusive use.’
There is no scenario that would persuade him England are in the wrong place. ‘We have researched it,’ he said. ‘The longest flight is three hours. That’s nothing — all the players are travelling that sort of distance for Champions League games. We thought about staying further south in the heat but that starts to affect the amount of training you can do and the quality of the training.’
Typically, Southgate was respectful towards all the possible opponents. ‘We would rather be one of the top seeds but we are not and that’s the consequence of our performance in the last two tournaments,’ he said. ‘But we are ready.’
Gary Lineker will host the draw, which is a credit to his ability to put personal ambition ahead of any concerns he might have expressed about FIFA or Russia. ‘Largest fan group of Russia’s Zenit don’t want any black or gay players. FIFA WC host decision ever more ludicrous,’ he once tweeted, though that post has since been removed.
Yesterday provided some insight into a country whose biggest contribution to global sport these past few years has involved tampered urine samples and computer hackers. Some journalists arrived at the Kremlin with personal wifi devices in an effort to avoid being hacked. They were met with a warning over the public address system: ‘Use of personal wifi hotspots within the secure perimeter is prohibited.’
But today Gary will smile for the cameras and Gareth will be stonefaced, irrespective of the outcome.
English football fans face up to 15 years in a Russian jail if they engage in hooliganism or mass disorder at next summer’s Russia World Cup, Sportsmail can reveal.
senior British police officers, who are urging English fans to desist from provocative nationalistic singing, have been made aware of the penalties the Russian authorities are likely to deal out.
Though the deportation of fans is also possible, jail terms of between eight and 15 years could be handed down for the kind of violence which marred England’s appearance at the European Championship in France last year.
The Russians are also ready to deal out heavy fines for ticket touting. Fines will go up according to the scale of the game but penalties will be anything from £3,000 to £20,000 per ticket. That means a tout caught trying to sell five tickets for the final could potentially face a £100,000 fine.
There are also likely to be fines for drinking in a public place, which is banned, as the Russian authorities seek to steer supporters into Fan Fest areas. Moscow deputy police chief Andrey Zakharov told
in October that he had ‘enough