Dein back on guest list

FoRMeR arsenal vice- chairman David Dein was back in the emirates Stadium directors’ box on Sunday for the first time since april 2007, when he quit as a result of ‘irreconcilable differences’ with the rest of the board.

Dein (right) and wife Barbara, who are understood to have received a warm welcome from everyone, were the guests of close friend arsene Wenger for his last home game.

Former star midfielder emmanuel Petit turned down pundit duty with French television so he could attend Wenger’s farewell. However, his arsenal team-mate Thierry Henry carried on with his Sky Sports commitments at Manchester City, which didn’t go down well on social media.

Perhaps Thierry felt he should do nothing to affect his vastly overpaid £4m-a-year Sky deal.

Sky say they wanted Henry at the City game because the focus was on manager Pep Guardiola — whom Thierry played under at Barcelona — winning the Premier League. MOROCCO’S

hopes of reaching a head-tohead FIFA Congress vote in June against the combined USA/Canada/Mexico bid to stage the 2026 World Cup rests on the FIFA evaluation report later this month. The FIFA inspection group made a second visit to the African country because of concerns over accommodation and stadiums, which Morocco say they have resolved. However, a score of less than two out of five in either of these mandatory categories would rule Morocco out before the Moscow vote. IT WaS not the best way to create positive first impressions of Morocco’s World Cup bid when the albeit charming organisers — at their own expense — flew a UK media party into Casablanca when the tour was kicking off in Marrakesh — two-anda-half hours away by car — which has frequent flights from London.

on a more positive note, the crazy Jemaa el-Fnaa, the iconic square in Marrakesh, has the wow factor as a proposed fan zone — even if the snake charmers won’t make it through security.