Crisis could derail Clarke’s 2030 plan
JUST when a crisis is boiling over England’s participation in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FA chairman Greg Clarke is forging ahead building bridges with countries ahead of a possible 2030 bid. And Clarke’s globetrotting makes him optimistic enough to tell FA insiders that another attempt to host the World Cup following the abject failures in the 2006 and 2018 elections is very much on his wish list.
But Clarke’s enthusiasm isn’t a great fit with the growing clamour for England to boycott the 2018 tournament over likely Kremlin involvement in the assassination attempt in Salisbury.
And were England to withdraw from the finals this summer, FIFA would rule them out of staging the event for the foreseeable future.
Despite Clarke’s canvassing, the FA have yet to put the 2030 bid on the agenda as it depends on Europe staging that tournament and UEFA putting all their backing behind one country.
IT WAS strange to see golfer Lee Westwood at Cheltenham without his former agent Chubby Chandler, whose racing partnership with Westwood was at the centre of the financial dispute that led to their split last year. Westwood, who needs to win in Houston the week before Augusta to qualify for the Masters, will not divulge details of the falling-out because of the confidentiality agreement they both signed.
VETERAN BBC commentator John Motson, a Jockey Club guest at Cheltenham, said he was more apprehensive sitting in the directors’ box at the London Stadium during West Ham fans’ ugly protest against the owners than he was sitting in a shaking gantry during the Luton-Millwall riot in 1985. Meanwhile, Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore, who has two of his domestic rights packages still to sell, brought along his TV rights legal adviser Nick West as his Cheltenham guest.
Racing bigot is shut out
THE odious James Underwood, whose European Racing & Breeding Digest became unviable following the industry backlash against his unacceptable comments about black and gay people in the sport, is hoping to continue with his publication renamed as the Bloodstock Digest.
But the widespread revulsion at 89-year- old Underwood’s racist and homophobic views remains. British Horseracing Authority executive director Will Lambe said: ‘We made it clear to James that there is simply no place in British racing for the views expressed. They were abhorrent. We immediately cancelled our subscription to his digest and have no intention of subscribing to any of his future publications.’
HORSE RACING isn’t noted for its new-school attitudes, but the betting companies sponsoring Cheltenham races are no longer using two women wearing branded sashes to lead in the winning horse, saying it is no longer appropriate. The role will be shared in future between men and women, according to the Jockey Club. Nevertheless old stager Derek Thompson, working as 5 Live’s racetrack reporter, still addressed Champion Hurdle winning Buveur D’Air’s stable lass as ‘Beautiful blonde girl’.
THE heavy going at Cheltenham proved most difficult in the fields that provide 70 per cent of the racecourse’s car parking. Despite big-screen warnings about the conditions, the laying of four miles of extra track and a number of tractors on hand to help stranded vehicles, getting out of the grounds was a lengthy nightmare for many last night — and more rain is expected. For the jet set however, Bentleys were laid on to take them the short distance to their waiting helicopters.