Elleray must solve this poppy fiasco

THE expectation England will play Germany again next November, over the Armistice Day period, has made it even more urgent to resolve the ongoing poppy fiasco.

The home nations have appealed to FIFA over fines handed down by Zurich over the display and wearing of poppies to commemorate the war dead both by spectators and players at the England v Scotland World Cup qualifier last November and at Wales and Northern Ireland games.

The matter is still going through FIFA’s appeals process, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport set to be the final arbiter. But FIFA president Gianni Infantino told the home nations at the FIFA Congress that he wants the rules-governing IFAB to introduce new regulations that bring an end to this annual fuss with FIFA.

IFAB technical director David Elleray has been charged with drafting new statutes that differentiate between political or religious symbols on shirts and those like poppies that honour military personnel killed in conflict. THE critical importance of the next round of media rights for all the ECB’s competitions — including the new city-based T20 — across all outlets from 2019, led them to dispatch the boxes of tender documents to all interested parties by courier yesterday. ECB chairman Colin Graves (right) and chief executive Tom Harrison will see their time in charge defined by the outcome of the process. Anything above a total figure of £850m over five years would be viewed as a success — although some at the ECB are optimistically hoping for £1billion-plus.