Pep rocks with Tommy

PEP GUARDIOLA’S round of golf with Tommy Fleetwood — while Manchester United’s home defeat by West Bromwich presented the title to Manchester City — was no rare occurrence.

Guardiola, who describes being a guest of Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal at the miracle of Medinah in 2012 as his best experience as a sports fan, is a good friend of Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy.

However, whether Liverpool fan Thomas Bjorn will want City manager Pep in the team room in Paris in September is a different matter.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s move for an extended 48-team World Cup in Qatar in 2022 is dead in the water. The European Leagues have made it clear they will not agree to adding any extra days to a winter World Cup, whose dates were agreed at the FIFA meeting in Marrakech in 2014. Lars-Christer Olsson, president of European Leagues, said: ‘We are not prepared to make any changes to the calendar.’

ANGUS FRASER, Middlesex’s director of cricket and a former England Test bowler, is the obvious choice to be the ECB’s national selector in the revamped structure to be named this week. But Fraser does not want the role, meaning there are now multiple candidates including former team boss Andy Flower, Notts director of cricket Mick Newell, cricketers-turned-journalists Derek Pringle, Mike Selvey and Simon Hughes, plus one female contender.

TV viewers of the Grand National were perplexed ITV did not show the fallers at Becher’s Brook and The Chair in their re-run of the race. But when the replay was being broadcast, doctors and vets were still treating jockeys and horses — so for sensitivity reasons, the network played it safe. In the event, all runners and riders came back safely.

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