‘ARNAUTOVIC WILL STAY’ THEY INSIST. WHAT, LIKE PAYET?

WEST HAM are adamant they do not want to sell Marko Arnautovic. however, they were equally certain they would not be selling Dimitri Payet in 2017. ‘The board’s position is that we do not want to sell Dimitri, we do not need to sell Dimitri for financial or any other reasons, and we will NOT sell Dimitri in the January transfer window,’ owner David Sullivan wrote in the programme for the match with Crystal Palace on January 14, 2017. Despite those capital letters, he was sold to Marseille two weeks later. West ham have never recovered from that, so it may be the club will stay firm on Arnautovic (above) — although if suitors are not easily deterred, Sullivan will surely understand why. NOW we could waste a lot of words pointing out the gruesome juxtaposition of FIFA’s £22,000 fine for the racial abuse of French players at a match in Russia with their £16,000 fine for an England player on the substitutes’ bench sipping an energy drink that was not among FIFA’s official sponsors at the Under 20 World Cup. We could decry FIFA’s standards, sense of proportion and priorities, and how this plays at a time when one of England’s black players, Danny Rose, has told his family to stay home rather than come to support him in Russia. Alternately, we could note president Gianni Infantino’s comment that FIFA takes the issue of racism ‘very seriously’ and conclude that he is nothing less than shallow, transparent and deluded. AN EXPANSION to 96 competitors will see the 2018-19 World Darts Championship include at least two women through qualifying. It doesn’t sound much but, until now, only two women in total have ever competed in the tournament. Gayl King, of Canada, made it to the last 32 in 2001, while Russia’s Anastasia Dobromyslova was eliminated in the first round in 2009. There is no reason at all why women should be inferior darts players to men. The only question is why the sexes were separated in the first place.