Given an Ince and the British media takes a foot

Following the first-leg match at Hampden Park, some of England’s players — Ince, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, David Seaman — sat up till six in the morning with manager kevin Keegan drinking beer and watching Lennox Lewis become Britain’s first undisputed heavyweight champion this century.

That, of course, was all the tabloids needed. Within hours the English team, and Keegan in particular, were strung up as drunken layabouts. “England players in booze shame” was the most decent heading. How, it was asked, could England have possiblybeaten Scotland when the players were nursing hangovers? England had played like a `pub team’ because they were one. And so on.

Keegan has a squad made up of stars, each one a big name in his own right. His job is to mould them into a unit playing for the country. His gameplan was simple: Get your key players together, infuse some national pride and hope that it filters to the others.

There are few occasions English sport can be proud of nowadays; the Lewis-Holyfield fight was one of them. Also, what the players were drinking was beer (Owen and Shearer, in fact, stuck to non-alchoholic); it’s not that they were downing shots of vodka. These are, after all, athletes in prime physical condition, for whom a few cans of lager are worked off easier than the lunchtime pasta; there will doubtless be no side-effects 80 hours later!

At least Keegan and Co were spared the humiliation of the Israeli national team. Hammered home and away by Denmark in another set of qualifiers, they were accused of orgies andall-night parties the day before the home-leg. The team now stands in shame; star mid-fielder Haim Revivo has said he’s contemplating quitting international football.

And now, back to everyone’s favourite whipping boys, the Men in Black (only nowadays they wear the colours of the rainbow). We’re talking, of course, about referees; this week, it’s how certain superstars use their status to influence referees. The immediate provocation was the Manchester United-Derby match last weekend, in which referee Mike Reed sent off Derby’s Stefan Schnoor for a second offence.

After the match, Derby boss Jim Smith said Reed’s decision came only after David Beckham and Gary Neville surrounded him and virtually demanded a red card. That wasn’t all; Reed apparently had a chat with Beckham, `asking after Posh Spice’ and where the couple were dining that evening. Ridiculous? But Smith is one of the most respected managers in the Premiership and not known for silly jokes.

For its own part, the FA has now decided topunish footballers for making obscene gestures to opponents or fans. For long, players have got away with warnings; Beckham was given a “quiet talking-to” and Arsenal’s Frederik Ljungberg got away with less. From this weekend, punishments could include fines and suspension.

And if the FA plan change, could FIFA be far behind? The future of the game, says its global controller, lies in women. Delegates at an international conference on the sport were told by FIFA officials that they would be actively promoting women’s football, because “women footballers don’t have dollar signs in their eyes and their approach to the game is refreshing”. Fact is, women’s football is one of the fastest-growing spots and this year’s World Cup spread the game even wider. No need for Ronaldo et al to hang up their boots yet, but…

Check List
ROGER’S THE MAN: Perennial Cameroon star Roger Milla is Africa’s Footballer of the Century, according to the magazine Africa Soccer. Which brings us to the topic ofAfrican footballers. Most ply their trade in Europe, and some have taken citizenship of European countries. Had Eusebio played for Mozambique instead of Portugal, he might have outvoted Milla; then again, he wouldn’t have hit the headlines the way he did.

FA CUP HISTORY: History has been made, and gone by virtually unnoticed. For the first time ever, the draw for the third round of the FA Cup at which stage the top-flight teams join in doesn’t include the holders. Manchester United had opted out of the competition to play in FIFA’s tournament in Brazil. That means two lucky teams; one is Aston Villa, who would have played United. The other is a `lucky loser’ from the second round, who will now play Villa.

BYE-BYE BOSMAN?: That’s what European sports ministers are working towards: Reform the ruling, keeping in mind EU trade laws and players’ rights, that allows footballers free agency within the EU once their contracts run out. The ruling, named after the Belgian footballer who fought forit, has crippled smaller clubs whose players are virtually poached by the bigger ones, and led to spiralling of wage bills. The next big name likely to benefit from the ruling is Man United skipper Roy Keane, who can start talks with other clubs on Jan 1, 2000.

Jayaditya Gupta can be contacted on e-mail at: joygupta@express2.indexp.co.in