Daily Mail

BOA praise Scots... for Wales Euro feat

- Charles Sale

NEGOTIATIO­NS around Great Britain fielding football teams at the 2020 Olympics have got off to a bizarre start, with Scotland and Northern Ireland receiving congratula­tions from the British Olympic Associatio­n on Wales reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

BOA chief Bill Sweeney, who has already been in contact with the FA, wrote bespoke letters to the football associatio­ns of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales requesting a meeting to start talks about combined teams, a subject that has met much opposition since London 2012.

But a junior administra­tor at the BOA sent the letter meant for FA of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford to Stewart Regan in Glasgow and Patrick Nelson in Belfast as well — rather than the correct versions praising the Irish on their Euro showing and wishing Scotland luck in their World Cup qualifiers.

A BOA spokesman said: ‘It was an unfortunat­e administra­tive blunder which the other countries have taken very well. Scotland wrote back good-humouredly pointing out they can’t take any credit for the Welsh doing so well.’

As for GB football in Tokyo, the Celtic nations want to meet within their own associatio­ns to clarify their stance before any BOA summit.

ITV SPORT, who have had an on-off relationsh­ip with boxing over the years, are understood to be considerin­g venturing back into the fight game in partnershi­p with promoters Poxon Sports run by Richard Poxon, who used to work with Ricky Hatton. It is yet to be decided whether there will be regular programmes or one-off shows. After almost six years without a live boxing event, ITV recovered some of their appetite for the sport by showing Carl Frampton’s IBF world super bantamweig­ht defence against Chris Avalos in February 2015. CREATIVE Artists Agency, the Los Angeles sport and entertainm­ent business whose A- list clients include Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo ( right), are setting up a sports executive search department and have already poached two recruitmen­t specialist­s from headhunter­s Odgers. The expectatio­n is that Odgers chief Simon Cummins will soon be following them to CAA.

THE Football League’s commercial department, led by Ben Wright, have kept their nerve in holding out for the price they wanted for the EFL Cup, even though it has meant going without a title backer this season. Thai energy drink Carabao have been signed to a three-year title sponsorshi­p worth £18million starting next term, an improvemen­t on the £5.5m a year Capital One were paying.

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