Pirate Evans ahoy!

COLE COURT in Twickenham is used by the RFU’s official licensed operators Lucid Events for their hospitality around England games.

So it should concern the RFU that Ipswich owner Marcus Evans is using the site during the Rugby World Cup as one of the bases for his company thg’s pirate hospitality packages that have seen Evans’s clients refused entry at the gate before both England’s World Cup games.

They were caught by a World Cup ticketing surveillance programme that has also exposed Eventmasters, another RFU licensed operator, selling unofficial packages in breach of the event’s terms and conditions.

lENGLAND

director of cricket Andrew Strauss told a cricket writers’ lunch that he now has a far better perspective on the media’s importance to the sport than he did as England captain. What also probably helped Strauss’s reassessment was the great press he has had for his decision-making this summer. THE FA board who meet at Wembley today will want answers from chairman Greg Dyke and vice- chairman David Gill since both men recommended the FA declare their support for UEFA chief Michel Platini for the FIFA presidency long before he had even published his manifesto. Some of the other board members are very unimpressed — as are all the other home nations — with the Platini letter sent to UEFA’s 54 member associations this week that does not explain why Platini was paid £1.35m for advising Blatter nine years previously. Platini last night blamed FIFA’s financial situation for the delay in payment.