The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 18

18 1 SPORTS NEWS The Guardian Friday December 22 1995 Soccer Neil Robinson and Cynthia Bateman report on what was an extraordinary day even by the game's standards of personal attacks and bitter recriminations Vertigo on managerial merry-go-round wich, to launch his attack on Leicester. "The whole managerial merry-go-round is a disgrace," he said. "I am not disappointed about what happened, I'm very annoyed. I have been used. It appears I've been led up the garden path.

I spoke to Leicester three times and I was under word he is now fully devoted to Leicester City, and I believe we have the best man for the job." O'Neill's assistants at Norwich, Steve Walford and Paul Franklin, are expected to follow him to Leicester. Meanwhile Lawrence, who guided Charlton Athletic into the old First Division in 1986 the impression I had got the job. I heard the rumours about Martin O'Neill but it wasn't until Wednesday night I got a phone call. "If they wanted to appoint someone they felt could do a better job that's fair enough, but it's disappointing when you get treated like this. It leaves a sour taste." and also took Middlesbrough into the Premiership in 1992, moved in at Kenilworth Road.

"It is a great challenge going to Luton and I am confident we can move the team away from the bottom of the table," he said. All that was left was for Walker, currently running a skip-hire company in Nor set the ball rolling by calling a press conference at 8.15am to announce O'Neill's appointment. Strangely, one of the first words O'Neill uttered was "loyalty" a commodity singularly lacking in the First Division this season. "I can understand Leicester fans being worried about loyalty," he said. "But I have no intention of using Leicester as a stepping stone.

"There's no way I'll be leaving at my behest," he added. "If I left, it would only be because I had been doing a very bad job." Just to make sure, Leicester, who have lost two managers in controversial circumstances during the past year, have insisted on a clause in O'Neill's 2'--year contract preventing him moving to another club. "He has displayed loyalty Irate Canaries fans take to streets in attempt to force Chase out Megson said he was leaving Bradford "with some regret, but Norwich niade me an offer I could not refuse. It is a chance to get into management and I know the club well." Yet Chase, who had been fiercely critical of the way in which O'Neill had walked out of Carrow Road, has yet to confirm Megson's appointment and was himself the subject of a demonstration by disgruntled supporters in the city last night. And to complete the unholy triangle, Mike Walker, who last season walked out on Norwich for Everton and had been tipped to take over at both Leicester and Luton, bitterly attacked Leicester's chairman Martin George, claiming to have been So even by football's standards it was a day of unprecedented drama.

As if aware of aenieu Qiama. rts await; ui chairman Geoffrey Richmond, who accused him of making an illegal approach for Megson. "We will take out a High Court injunction this morning," said Richmond. Norwich first approached Bradford on Wednesday, seeking permission to speak to Megson. Richmond says that Chase was told that this would only be granted if details of the proposed compensation were presented in writing.

Although Chase subsequently phoned Bradford, Richmond said last night that no details had been sent and he accused Norwich's chairman of contravening Football League rules by speaking to Megson about the job. "We have no argument with Gary Megson." he said. "But we do have an argument with Norwich. What has been happening in football in the past week has brought the whole game into disrepute." THE First Division managerial merry-go-round spun out of control yesterday when Bradford City threatened legal action to prevent their assistant manager Gary Megson joining Norwich City, the club of which he was temporarily in charge last season. In other moves Martin O'Neill, who created that vacancy by walking out on Norwich last weekend, was appointed at Leicester and Lennie Lawrence, who was sacked by Bradford City last month, took over at Luton.

At the centre of much of yesterday's activity was Norwich's chairman Robert Chase, who began the day by announcing that he was happy with the manner in which Leicester conducted O'Neill's appointment and ended it by receiving a fierce barrage from Bradford's ers accuse Chase, who together with his associate has a 51 per cent stake in the club, of refusing to provide money for team improvement. Their anger reached its peak last weekend when Martin O'Neill walked out on the club, citing lack of finance as the reason. gardens in the city, and the local paper devoted an entire page to letters from readers demanding that he leave the club. The Norwich City Independent Supporters' Association, which organised last night's petition, is also demanding that sup AORWICH's chairman VRobert Chase was under attack from another quarter last night when disgruntled supporters took to the streets with a petition demanding that he sell up and leave Carrow Road, writes Neil Robinson. Discontent has brewed since last season when the club from The cost I ill uiu uuu wac leiegctieu num what was to come, Leicester I "Martin has given me his the Premiership.

Support- City fans dig deep to in the past, said George. were relegated HUJ1fta uiaiuucs ai iu viuist: seejuiig lu Ul Carrow Road. him out. price of strike porters boycott matches at to Chase seeking to McCarthy puts his foot in door John Duncan on the winners and losers What the average spectator pays to see a home goal Premiership 18.00 26.05 fOp Oldham Tranmere Huddersfield Barnsley 3.42 1 3.64 4.48 C5.12 Portsmouth E5.14I Derby Grimsby Sunderland Leicester I Reading Charlton Watford Ipswich E5.SO 5.52 5.84 6.11 2 i 1 -gg; 8.93 1 m. JgjfeB 14.21 t-" E14.59: 15.67 Cl4' cost across the country much fans have paid to see their team based on cost of season ticket "Our message to Chase is that you must go, but please go now before you do any more damage," said Roy Blower, the chairman of the supporters' association.

A consortium headed by a local businessman, Mike Cambridge, is understood to have made an approach buy for money stakes First Division value table, each strike costing 3.42. There are regional as well as club differences. East Midlands clubs only ask 5.98 in exchange for the rippling of nets, compared with the capita investment for London goal-seekers of 12.04. Last year's third-from-bottom team Arsenal have surged up the goal-value table (8.21, eighth), leaving boring Tottenham languishing, at 18, in 19th place. The survey was conducted by asking clubs to quote a price for a halfway-line season ticket.

"Nothing too fancy," said Francis Hesketh. who conducted the research. "Lower tier, but a good view. "Then we found out the number of games that included and worked out how much it cost to get into each game and timesed it by how many home games they've had so far. Then we took the number of goals and divided the two to get our quotient." Hesketh's interest derived from a desire to humiliate fellow supporters.

As a Tranmere follower he wanted to let Evertonians. who had just acquired his former chairman Peter Johnson, know just how little he cared. "I worked it out in a quiet moment because Tranmere score a lot of goals at Pren-ton Park and don't charge very much but Everton don't score very much at Goodison and charge a fortune. It just snowballed from there." Hunt, aged 18, won the women's Prixette. Athletics Colin Jackson and Sonia O'Sullivan are to compete in Australia next year as part of their preparations for the Atlanta Olympics.

The 1 10m hurdles world record holder and the champion plan to race in Melbourne on February 29 and at the Australian National Championships in Sydney on March 7-10. Olympic Games The Australian media magnate Kerry Packer yesterday resigned from the organising committee for the Sydney Olympics of 2000. The committee said he had stepped down because of overseas business commitments. Msec. Von Gruomgon ISwttz) 1 M96.

3. Fliiitor Aut) 1 59 21 Standings: t. Von Gruunigen 460pts: 2. Kjus 390. 3.

Knaus (Aut) 246 Ovoroll: 1. Kus Z'tOpts. 2. Von Grwinigon 480. 3.

Knaus (Anil 377 Nations' Cup stand Irros: I. Austria 2.3l4pts. 2. Switzerland 1.63b. 3.

Norway 1,425 WOMEN'S WORLD CUP (Veysonnaz) Giant slalom: 1. Erll tGen L'min OOObsuc. 2, Panzanini (II) 2.01.55. 3. A Wathtor (Autl 2 01.79 Standings: 1.

till 2()0pts, 2, Wachlur 105. 3. Panzanini 104 Overall: A Muissnitzor (Aut) 488pls, 2, Waclilm 439. 3, Soaingor IGor) 40b Nations' Cup standings: 1, Austria 2. Germany 1,310: 3, Switz 1.056 Ice Hockey NHL: Calgary 3.

Hartlord 2. Butl.ilo 2, Montreal 1. Chicago 4. Toronto 2. Colorado 4, Edmonlon 1.

Detroit 6. Anaheim 1. Vancouver 2, Lus Angolos 2 (ot. Fixtures 17 30 unless staled) Soccer ENDSLEtQH LEAOUE: First Division: Ipswich Uarnslcy (7 45). Second Division: Brighton Chosterliold (7 45); Carlisle York (7 45).

Wrexham Bronttord Third Division: Orient Rochdale N-W COUNTIES LEAOUE: First Division: Nanlwich In Eastwood Hanloy LEAGUE OF IRELAND: Pramisr: Athlone Tn Cork (8 01. Droghoda Utd St Pal-ricks Alh (7 45). Shelbourno Galway Utd (7 45) Rugby Union INTERNATIONAL: Scottish bens Frencli Snhs t'0. Muiraylioldl TENNEHTS INTER DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh Dist Nuith Midlands (7 0, Moggolundi Rugby League YOUTH INTERNATIONAL: Young Lions Australia (Mt Pleasant. IJalluy) East North Midlands East East Anglia Since then "Chase out" of a goal Division 1 6.19! 6.22 6.34 6.49 i 7.04 7.13 I 7.62 8.65 8.70 8.83 8.88 I 10.48"! 13.09 GRAPHIC STEVE VILLIERS.

GRAPHIC NEWS North London Average West Three months before the start of a series the producer sits down with two researchers and wades through hours of football tape to glean the few choice slices that will be used in the programme. "I'm a sociological Des Lynam," says Jacobs. Fantasy Football is watched by 2.3 million, which BBC 2 says is a respectable figure for a late-night show, though Baddiel is annoyed by what he calls the myth that it is designed to collar pub leavers. "I think it goes out at totally the wrong time for the pub because most people stay in there until half-past eleven. If it wants a post-pub audience it has to go out later, or alternatively before people go out to the pub although I think people often watch it pissed." The show is recorded in London the night before transmission and in front of an apparently well-oiled audience in order to ensure its topicality.

Only about 12 minutes of the recording gets taken out, mainly because the blunders are kept in. Most of these involve the John Motson-like figure of Statto who, as the school swot, is the butt of the back-row slackers' jokes. "There was one time I don't think Statto knows this actually we gave him an exploding cigar," Baddiel says. "It was when Michael Grade was on and we gave everyone a cigar but we gave Statto an exploding one. There was a huge kind of bang and Statto started shouting but later we discovered that he hadn't actually lit the cigar he had just burnt himself on the lighter." Men behaving not so badly is on at 11.10 tonight.

ouii-i: high uaot; uui banners have appeared in cover New Lads on the box get ready for a third take Blackburn Nottm. Liverpool Newcastle Aston Villa Man Utd Everton Arsenal M'boro Sheff Wed Wimbledon Coventry Southampton Leeds QPR West Ham Chelsea Bolton Spurs Man City Average 5.401 I I 6.63 1 6.81 Collymore's 425,000 claim fails STAN COLLYMORE has lost his claim for a 425.000 transfer payment. The 21-year-old Liverpool striker maintained that, because he had not requested a transfer when he left Nottingham Forest in the summer, he was entitled to five per cent of the 8.5 million fee. a British record. But an FA Premier League board was yesterday "not persuaded" by Collymore's version of events and ruled that Forest were not obliged to pay that sum.

Forest, who claimed Colly-more had engineered his transfer to Liverpool even though he had not made a written request, were nevertheless ordered to pay the signing-on fee of 150,000 agreed when he moved to the City Ground from Southend for 2.2 million in June 1993. -We'll talk to the PFA and consider what to do now," said Collymore's agent Paul Strettord. Mark McGhee's first pur chase as manager of struggling Wolves could be Simon Osborn, valued at 1 million by Queens Park Rangers. McGhee, who took the Everton player Vinny Samwavs on loan yesterday, is also trying to sign the former Russian captain Alexei Mikhaili-chenko from Glasgow's Rangers tor All three players are mid fielders, the area that McGhee identified as his main priority after watching Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Port Vale, his first match. Ian Wright, the Arsenal and England striker alleged to have described all Premier ship referees as incompetent.

is to be interviewed ny fA officials. Brighton have submitted a planning application for a 16 million, all-seat sta dium at Toad's Hole Valley in Hove, two miles from the Goldstone Ground. 6.8ll i 8.101 8.1 I SS.S3 I a I I 1 tuJJ The Shows how at home in the League value THE net bulges at Maine Road tomorrow, the long-suffering sup- 0 porters of Manchester City may let out a groan. The goals their team score are the most expensive in the Premier League, according to a Guardian survey. Taking into account the price of admission for a reasonable halfway-line seat and the number of home goals scored, every City goal costs 26.05.

This compares poorly with the value for money offered at Blackburn Rovers, whose multi-mil-lion-pound side offer economy-rate goal action: seeing all Ewood Park's 25 goals this season would cost you only 5.40 apiece. Seven of those 25 came against the team with the second-best cost per goal quotient, Nottingham Forest, who as well as helping give Blackburn fans such great value effectively cost their supporters only 6.32 a goal when they appear at the City Ground. Nor is this a fluke statistic. Last year Rovers and Forest were second and third in a table taken over the previous two seasons. Newcastle United, who topped the previous table, have slipped to fourth.

Managers fond of saying that Premiership goals are priceless might note that in fact the average cost of seeing one in the Premiership is 11.26 (1993-95: 9.62), which compares with a 6.88 average in the First Division. Oldham top the Sport in brief Motor Racing Jackie Stewart will return to Formula One in 1997. as the figurehead for an as yet unnamed team backed by Ford and managed by his son Paul. Stewart, 50. who won three world titles and 27 grands prix, retired in 1973.

Chess On a notable day for Britain's youngest grandmasters, Michael Adams, aged 21, scored a solid -17-move draw against Anatoly Karpov at Groningen while Matthew Sadler, aged 21, won the 3,000 Leigh Grand Prix. writes Leonard Bardvn. The Oxford schoolgirl Harriet Results Soccer PONTIUS LEAOUE: First Division: Bolton 1. Tranmere 3. Leeds 1.

Sloko 0 SPANISH LEAGUE! Deportivu La Coruna .1 Heal Madrid 0 BELOIAN LEAGUE! Club Brugge 3. Sora-my I Standard Liege I. Warogem I. Rugby League ALLIANCE: First Dlv: Leigh 20. York 1B Basketball EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: Group CSKA Moscow 91.

Antibus 69. Ulker Spur 94 Unicaja. Malaga 86 Qroup Panatb-inaikos b. Maccabr Tol Aviv 62. Crbona Zagreb 83, PauOrtoz 7B NBA: Indiana 109.

LA Labors 98. Miami 112. Nuw Jersey 10-1 (oil, Orlando 10'. Minnesota 100. Philadelphia 108.

Utah 104. Detroit 102. Milwaukee 77. Denver 109. Golden Statu 104.

Phoenix 10b, Washing-tun 104 lull Chess LEIGH GRAND PRIX: 1. Adams (Truro 19? 3200 2. Arkoll (Dornyl 192 2. 3. Conquest IBnstol) 187 3 Prlxotte: I.

Hunt (Oxlord) 79.7. Lalic (Sultonl 75 0. GRONINOEN TOURNAMENT INoth) Round 2: Svidlor IRus) 0. van Woly INnthl I Almasi (Hun Loko (Hun Kamsky IUSI 1. Pikot (Nolh 0: Tivia-kov (HUM Laulier (Hr) A Karpov lHur.

Ad.imr, lEntj) Hanson IDon) I Sokolov (Bos) X. Sundingil Van Woly 2. Kamsky Loko. Sokolov, Adams. Lau-tinr.

Trviak'jv. Karpov, Hansen 1: Almasi, Pik.it, Surlier Cricket WORLD SERIES LIMITED OVERS MATCH: Sydnoy: Sri Lanka (SO uvurs) Australia (49 4 overs) Australia won by live wickuls Alpine Skiing MEN'S WORLD CUP IKr.inish.i Goial Qiant slalom: I. Kus (Nur) 1mm many of Charlton's squad will have quit too, and on the same ground: that the time is right for change. One of Charlton's problems was that a new generation of players failed to emerge to augment his ageing squad. And when the Republic did find new blood with Gary Kelly.

Phil Babb and Jason McAteer. the join between the old and the new showed. But the problem of too few-players will be a minor one for the next manager, whose major challenge will be to win the same support from the people as Charlton did. The FAI's priority is to get a high-profile and marketable manager who is attractive to sponsors. At the same time he has to be a man who can operate on a shoestring in respect of playing talent.

Charlton only ever had a senior squad of about 30 players yet achieved an amazing record of only 17 defeats in 93 games and is said to have made 4 million from the 1994 World Cup alone. The FAI may be prepared to accept a manager on a part-time basis, and last night Millwall said they were prepared to give the Irish permission to talk to McCarthy. Kenny Dalglish BLACKBURN'S director of football might welcome a chance to leave Ewood Park, and the FA of Ireland would be flattered to get a personality of Dalglish's stature to set the sponsors drooling. Dalglish's presence in Dublin at the time of the FAI player awards, which involved Blackburn's Jeff Kenna, fuelled the rumour mill. Howard Kendall DESPITE having just taken over at Sheffield United, Kendall would be delighted to be approached about the job, particularly if it was on a part-time basis.

After his unhappy experiences at Notts County he has revised his lifestyle and become teetotal. When manager of Manchester City he was a serious candidate for the England job. Cynthia Bateman finds Dublin rife with who's-next intrigue OK THE four famous names linked with the Ireland manager's job, it fell to the least well-known to be in Dublin yesterday. McCarthy happened to drop in to do a spot of light Christmas shopping. "It's something 1 do every year." said the Millwall manager, the son of an Irishman who emigrated to Barnsley to work down the pits.

"But if Charltonl and 1 are in Dublin on the same day people will be speculating. It's a coincidence, nothing more." His visit, however, coming only hours after Charlton resigned as the national manager, did nothing to dampen expectations that the former Republic centre-half will be offered the job. Charlton himself has said McCarthy would make an ideal national manager but the KA of Ireland stressed last night that no decision will be made until the new year. McCarthy, if appointed, will undoubtedly find that Mick McCarthy A STRAIGHT-TALKING Yorkshireman as close to the Charlton mould as the Irish will find, although he is not known to share a love of fishing. McCarthy, 36, made his debut for the Republic against Poland in 1984 and won 57 caps, 18 of them as captain.

He gave way to younger legs before US '94 but has said he would dearly love the job. Joe Kinnear THE talking-from-the-hip Irishman was once favourite lor the job but is believed to have ruffled a few FAI feathers. At 50 he would fit the bill. The rogue manager of Wimbledon for the past four years, he has a release clause in his contract if offered the Republic job. He won 26 caps for Ireland and has been coach to Malaysia, Dubai and India.

Mark Redding on the Baddiel and Skinner series which has taken on cult status Southend Birmingham Port Vale Luton Norwich Wolves Palace Stoke Sheff Utd WestBrom Millwall Average score South Yorkshire West Midlands liked football and I've always liked naked women and it's easier to talk about that now than it was eight years ago." Having hit on a winning formula, rather as Liverpool did in the Seventies, the programme sees little reason to change and there will not be many surprises tonight. The format is as before, with Baddiel. 31, and his co-host Frank Skinner. 38, welcoming celebrity guests into their "flat" to consume lager and chat about the people's game probably much as they do at home where they share a flat in Hampstead. "Both of us think that the programme is above all a comedy show and not a sports show.

It is basically a comedy set in the world of the football fan," Baddiel explains. The talk is broken up by funny film clips and the now legendary Phoenix from the Flames, which recreates earth-shattering moments from football history such as Peter Shiiton being outwitted bv the Hand of God in the 1986 World Cup. Guest managers include Dani Behr, Melvyn Bragg, Freddie Starr and Prince Na-seem Hamed. They were chosen by Baddiel, Skinner and their producer Andy Jacobs, each awarding them points out of 20. Rod Stewart got 0 though he could not make the show.

Baddiel's all-time favourite guest is Basil Brush. "We always have a puppet which this year is Roger do Courcey and Nookie Bear." he says, before adding thoughtfully: "In fact we've managed to develop that a bit because he's actually a ventriloquist." POLICE in mountainous areas have warned of chaos on the roads and are advising motorists not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary. The roads will be packed, they say, with a flood of New Men heading for the hills in second hand Volvos in an attempt to escape the latest onslaught from Fantasy Football League, which begins its third run on BBC 2 tonight. As the decade reaches its halfway mark, the New Lads are fighting back and, more importantly, winning. It is now possible for the unreconstructed to watch Fantasy Football.

Men Behaving Badly or Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, while listening to Oasis, flipping through Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch and waiting for the latest copy of Loaded magazine to drop through the letterbox. Even the former Faces frontman Rod Stewart is starting to become fashionable again. "Top telly and top funny." says Loaded of the show whose hosts capitalising on the seemingly endless ability of football to lend itself to any interpretation find themselves occupying the unlikely position of spokesmen for a generation, no less. "Nick Hornby once said to me that all this stuff you know, Fantasy Football and his book is men talking about things that they like and for a while in the mid-Eighties they weren't allowed to." says David Baddiel. "That's been slightly blown up into the idea of there being a counter-reaction to being very right-on.

But I've always.