The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 22

22 SPORTS NEWS The Guardian Tuesday September 5 1995 Soccer Venables stages old passion play can be made for recalling Robert Lee, giving Jamie Red- David Lacey on a clarion call to England's players before the game against Colombia some other poor bastards break their necks for their country. Either way, with only seven or eight friendlies to go before the 1996 European Championship, this is no longer the time for anyone to lie back and think of England. Yesterday even David Seaman; that most laid-back of goalkeepers, found himself saying that should he regain his England place from Tim Flowers when the team is announced today he would regard it as confirmation that he was Venables's first choice. Tony Adams, Seaman's captain at Arsenal, will lead the side in the absence through injury of David Piatt, but the rest of the line-up, as ususal with England teams in September, is a matter of guesswork. Only the full-back Stuart Pearce, a hamstring sufferer, appears a sure non-starter.

Venables is seeking a rare mixture of passion, ability and footballing intelligence which calls to mind the likes of Alan Ball and Bryan Rob-son. Not everyone would mention the name of Dennis Wise in the same breath but he is hrl sj a as ii i milium i i ill i mw i nni RITUALS need to be maintained, otherwise they would no longer be rituals. For the ritualistically minded, therefore, Terry Ven-ables's appeals for passion and commitment from his players will have made welcome reading as England prepare to face Colombia, that most dispassionate and noncommittal of teams, at Wembley tomorrow night. Sooner or later those in charge of England squads start talking about devotion to duty. Don Revie made Land of Hope and Glory the theme of his teams at Wembley, if only to see them become hopeless and inglorious.

Ron Greenwood wanted "lively minds in lively Bobby Robson awarded VCs. Graham Taylor recognised the need for "not only talent but applied Alf Ramsey, in the unlikely event of his deigning to answer questions concerning the commitment of his players, would have said that his team selections provided the answer. Venables has expressed a desire for players willing to break their necks for their country although in all probability, like General Patton, he would prefer men who made IIIHHHHHBBnF MM II 11 II HIM I'l I WW 1M1I i PHOTOGRAPH: TOM JENKINS Fair effort Gascoigne gives vent to his feelings during England's training session at Bisham Abbey yesterday Golden age dulled by the Why Preston are Keegan spurns Fox offers Colombia connection joining Spurs on the market The maximum wage meant players had no benefit from the post-war Russell Thomas KEVIN KEEGAN yesterday discouraged interest in Ruel Fox, England's most wanted winger, with the revelation that he had rejected two clubs! offers of 3.25 million for the unsettled player. "We could have made a 1 million profit, but the money is not right and I don't want him to go," said Newcastle's manager. He would not name the clubs, but Tottenham and Leeds are believed to have gone furthest with their inquiries.

Blackburn, Middlesbrough and Celtic are also interested. Fox, who has not started a McCoist in line for striking breach knapp his first cap, usmg Steve McManaman, if fit, in Darren Anderton's roving role, giving Nick Barmby at least part of the match to augment his claims to be Peter Beardsley's natural succes sor, and capitalising on John Barnes's excellent start to the season for Liverpool. John Sa- laKO hour may have come. So much, not only for this came nut those that he ahead, depends on the fitness of Paul Gascoigne, who has played only two full competitive matches for Rangers this sea son ana last completed an England game two years ago. Gas coigne is still wearing his lean ana hungry look, venables nas to work out just when such a man is likely to be dangerous.

(iascoigne or no ttascoigne, a bad performance against Colombia would revive tne campaign to pick Southamp ton Matthew Le Tissier, immensely gifted but not Vena bles's idea of a one-man passion play. When asked if he had spoken to Le Tissier about Bobby Gould's interest in making him an honorary Welshman, tne England coach said that he had not and that in any case the deci sion was up to the player. Venables would, in all prob ability, have said the same about Vinnie Jones. Not that the question ever arose. years at Bury, where he had succeeded Ellis.

Ellis's replacement at Lincoln will be Steve Wicks, the former QPR and Chelsea defender whose previous managerial experience at Scarborough ended a year ago. Iain Dowie will complete his return to West Ham today in an exchange deal that takes the Dutch striker Jeroen Boere to Crystal Palace, who will also receive 150,000. Palace are also pursuing Brentford's England Under-21 forward Nick Forster as a potential strike partner. Falkirk have signed the former Rangers, Hearts and Scotland midfielder Derek Ferguson, out of contract at Sunderland. New-broom Gould may use sweeper Martin Thorpe BOBBY GOULD keeps calling the team who face his new Wales tomorrow Molda via, making them sound like a British-film Grand Duchy run by Peter Sellers.

But it gouiu is navmg trou ble with his pronounciation the name is Moldova his movie history is spot on, for if there is one thing he wants Wales to become it is The Mouse That Roared. And mice they are, down four places in the latest Fifa world rankings to no. 67, be low the might of Mali, Lithua nia and Senegal, alter one win in seven games during the past year left them plumb bottom of the Group Seven table. bo with qualification tor the Euroneaii Championship long gone out the window, the new manager norwons are set on making the finals of the next World Cup, and as such Gould first match in charge, against the former Soviet republic in Cardiff tomorrow, offers a valuable early chance to assess the task ahead. His debut team selection is unlikely to hold any sur prises, the biggest possibly being the use ot the Notting ham Forest midfielder David Phillips as a sweeper to shore up a defence that has leaked 16 goals in seven qualifying games.

Wales earned their best results usinc a sweeper though Gould will be wary of stripping the midtieia too much, given that Moldova played five men there in October. Wales were without Rush Giggs, Hughes and Saunders for that 3-2 defeat, and though Giggs (injured) and Saunders (baby due) are again absent, the naturally upbeat air pro vided by a new manager, and especially one of Gould ebul lience, should help the team find some belated pride in their performance. Hughes, who is expected to partner Rush up front, certainly hopes so. "It has not been very enjoyable this past year," he said, "especially after we had done so well in other years. But we have an opportunity now to get some thing out of this game and begin to get our pride back.

"Team spirit was the one thing we always had. But with all that's happened that's gone a little bit and it's important we set that back. Wales have signed a one- year 50,000 sponsorship with highly thought off by Venables for these very qualities and may be about to make yet an other international comeback. Cases of varying strength senior game for the Premiership leaders this season, has discussed his future with Keegan. But Newcastle's manager insists Fox and any other discontented player will not be allowed to leave unless they put in a transfer request.

And even then, Keegan added, "the price would have to be right and I would need a Sam Ellis and Mike Walsh have become the first managerial casualties of the season, 23 days into the season. Ellis's 16-month term at Lincoln effectively ended on Sunday night when he was informed of a board decison to sack him. Walsh was the Third Division's longest-serving manager after almost five burn defender, has a broken toe and will have a pain-kill ing injection to allow him to face Finland. Jack Charlton yesterday called for a new rule to dis qualify international players from appearing in their club's next match if they are unfit to play for their country during the previous week, writes Cynthia Bateman. Charlton's strong feelings surfaced after the sudden withdrawal with a knee injury of the Bolton midfielder Jason McAteer, about which the Republic of Ireland manager knew nothing until less than 12 hours before his squad left for Vienna for tomorrow's Group Six qualifier against Austria.

Charlton, who had to phone McAteer's mother late on Sunday evening to ask why he had not joined the squad in Dublin, said: "I can't judge anybody, but I am disap pointed that Jason himself didn't ring us. He is under a lot of pressure with all these people chasing him for his move: Arsenal, Liverpool, Blackburn, whatever. "Normally if there was a problem he would have con tacted us. To sit waiting to find out why he had not arrived on the flight on Sunday evening and then start trying to find his whereabouts was a bit frustrating." housemaid, chauffeur-driven car. 'Good he said, 'do they want a In Bogota the players were greeted by 5,000 people at the airport and driven in a caval cade ot sirens and horns to the stadium, where they were shown off to the supporters.

Yet nothing could prepare them for the intensity of the laotball. The biggest game ot the season was the derby against Millonarios, who had spent a fortune signing Al fredo di Stefano and Hector Rial, who would later lead Real Madrid to glory. "We had one of the English referees they'd brought over," says Mitten. "One of our lads had a shot and it hit the rerer-ee and flew into the Millonarios net. One up we are, five minutes left.

There was a bloody riot. The referee came up and said, 'Charlie, what's to I said, 'How long to go, 'With the riot on. about a he said. 'Well, blow the bloody whistle and we'll all go "So he blew and the English players walk off with the referee while the rest were still scrapping on the field. Two gendarmes and a soldier helped escort Tom to his room.

We got showered and dressed and went to find Tom. I knocked on the referee's room, no reply, so I looked in and there's the lad stretched out on the floor still in his gear. One of the gendarmes had hit him with the butt of his rifle; he was a Millonarios supporter." One season was enough for the English players. On their return they had to face the wrath of their clubs, who still officially retained them. Mitten went to see Busby.

"He said, 'The board have decided you have to be transferred because of discipline, Charles." 'But I'm a better player because of what I've learnt out I replied. 'I'm sure you he said, 'and bloody hell we need an outside-left, but you have to go'." Worse was to follow: the FA fined the players 250 20 weeks' wages and suspended them for six months without pay. It was another 10 years before the end of the maximum wage, three more years before George Eastham beat the retain-and-transfer system. That was too late for the players of the golden age. Alan Brown is a producer of Kicking and Screaming.

BBC2's history of football which begins on Monday, October 16. boom. the Bogota storm the season for Stoke and left with wives and families the next day. Nobody knew. The next week they were standing on a pitch at an alti tude of 2,000 metres in Bogota.

I couldn help thinking dur ing the game how strange it was that we should play at the Victoria Ground on Saturday and lose 5-3 to Arsenal, and eight days later we should he playing in a city no one had beard ot in a country tew people at home knew ex isted, says Franklin. Mitten, on tour in the US when Robledo called him in his room at the Times Square Hotel, recalls: went to see Busby. 'Listen, I said, 'we've won everything except the Boat Race for you and we've got nothing. I'm 28 now, I ve only got 300 quid in the bank, I'm living in a club house and I'm supposed to be one of the best wingers in the He said, 'I know, laddie, but that's the I said. 'Well, the rules are wrong and I'm looking after I told him I was getting 5,000 signing-on lee, 5,000 salary, Pools Forecast Mitten fined and fired Roger Co we sees potential danger in a stock-market quote ONE of the most venerable names in English soccer, Pres ton North End, will be changed today, assuming all goes to plan at the club's annual meeting.

Don't pan- icrtlre change will be minor. The company is merely becoming Preston North End pic, not some thing appalling such as Baxi Preston Panthers. But whereas the name change will be minor the effect will be substantial, since it indicates that the club are to join the elite band floated on the stock market. Once again the club will join such greats as Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Liverpool, just as in the glory days when they were among the league leaders. The route to the stock market began last year with the club's takeover by Baxi, the employee-owned heating, ventilation and sanitary-ware company.

we always intended to widen share ownership," the Preston chairman Bryan Gray explained. Gray talked about the club's place in the community, and the hope that turning supporters into shareholders would help the club "become part of the community in a very real But he also indicated that Preston's flotation has been driven by the same financial necessity that has brought most clubs to market. Selling shares will put Preston in a very strong financial po Gray said, and help to finance redevelopment of the ground, which has already begun and which will include the new National Football Museum. The point of joining the stock market is that it en ables shareholders to sell their shares should they change their allegiance, or need the money. And it al lows the gambling that is a key aspect ot share trading.

Manchester United's shares have soared since the club Ice Hockey Patrick Glenn CRAIG BROWN, the Scotland coach, can expect to lose a third of his strike force for the European Championship qualifier against Finland at Hampden Park tomorrow night. Duncan Shearer of Aberdeen and Darren Jackson of Hibernian, both with knee damage, are unlikely to be ready. Shearer, who had been favourite to partner his club-mate Scott Booth, has been struggling for fitness since twisting ligaments in a reserve match last Friday night. Jackson sustained his injury in training with the national squad the following day. Shearer's absence would make Ally McCoist a probable starter with Booth.

Although still not properly match fit after two years of injury problems, McCoist scored the winning goal against Greece last month to make the Scots odds-on to qualify for the finals from Group Eight, along with Russia. The other two forwards in the squad, John Robertson of Hearts aim jonn spencer ot Chelsea, will hope that Brown adopts a three-man attack to give one of them a chance of starting the match. Colin Hendry, the Black floated in 1991, yielding a huge profit to those who bought at the start. On the other hand, investors in Spurs and Millwall have seen their shares plunge (Millwall shares are now languishing at 2.5p). A share issue also makes it possible to raise cash from a wider group of subscribers, and subsequently to come back and ask shareholders for more money, as Celtfirdia very successfully last year.

Indeed, a full stock-market quote opens up shareholdings to any private investor as well as some financial institutions although only Manchester United, with a stock- market value of almost 100 million, are large enough to interest investment funds. Most quoted soccer clubs have not gone all the way, however. Clubs such as Arsenal and Liverpool arc quoted under the special rule 4.2. This means you can buy or sell shares only if a stockbroker can find somebody to do the deal with, on what is called a "matenca bargain" basis. With a full quote, a stockbroker advertises prices at which it will buy or sell, and a deal is always possible.

This halfway house also avoids the great drawback ot issuing shares widely: the potential loss of control. A full quote makes it easier for somebody to build up a stake and threaten the board, or in deed for one side of a divid ed board to outmanoeuvre the other. The fear of losing control has discouraged many clubs from joining the stock market, and led to al ternative money-raising schemes such as the hated bond issues at Arsenal and West Ham. But occasionally a share issue offers the way out of a boardroom impasse. For example, Manchester United decided to float after the debacle of Martin Edwards attempted pit vatc sale to Michael Knighton.

The flotation extricated Edwards from his embarrassment, while achieving his aim of raising money trom the substantial share stake he inherited from his father. tween Cardiff and the Swindon club, although the Swindon chairman Bill Roche maintains that the player broke a legally enforceable agreement to spend a second season with his team. Taggart revealed that Moria may yet face disciplinary action for bringing the game into disrepute. "Roche is the abused party, Cardiff got sucked in and to be honest the bad guy is Moria," Taggart claimed. "He made promises whether verbal or written it doesn't really matter and he hasn't honoured them." Moria won his team's Gold Alan Brown recalls E1L FRANKLIN has a team of mail-order porcelain footballers on his sideboard.

"Look at them," he points at the front, "Eng- land tamous live, Finney, Mannion, Lavrton, Mortensen and Stan that's me, at the back." He points to a tall, fair fig ure in Stoke's red-and-white stripes. "I had to have myself in it, he says apologetically. Few would argue with his inclusion, as he was part of the golden age. Football in the Forties. He should have been there in Brazil in 1950 when England took part in their first World Cup.

But instead of lin ing up to face Chile Rio, England's outstanding centre-half was in Bogota, Colombia, playing for the club side Santa Fe. In front of him was Charlie Mitten, a star of Matt Busby's first great Manches ter united side. Driven by a deep sense of injustice and at the peak of their careers, two of the game's biggest names had walked out of English football. History, remembers the big story that year was Eng land's humiliating defeat by the United States. But, at the time, that was nothing com pared with the storm caused by this rebellion.

The post-war boom in English football had made the clubs rich. Yet the players who so excited the record crowds did not see any benefit. Their wages were stuck at a maximum of 12, little better than a skilled craftsman's. Their salary was the equivalent of one day's work for Stan Collymore. Once a player signed for a club the archaic retain-and-transfer system meant he was tied for life "a death Wilf Man nion once called it.

In the spring of 1950 Luis Robledo, millionaire cattle baron and president of Santa Fe, came to England looking for players. Colombia was not a member ot Kita, tne worm governing body, and openly disregarded its rules. Robledo went after the players he wanted, made them an offer and forgot the transfer fee. Franklin and his team mate George Mountford were the first to sign the secret deal They played their last game of Award as the Devils beat the Basingstoke Bison 6-1. Randy Smith scored two goals; Moria had a goal and an assist.

Nottingham's victory was all the more remarkable for the loss of their player-coach Mike Blaisdell, dismissed in the 14th minute with a game misconduct for elbows. Tony Hand and Chris Kcl-land returned to the Steelers' line-up after missing Saturday's 14-4 win over Peterborough, while Scott Neil was absent from both games. All three were injured when Neil wrote off his sponsored 16,000 Seat Toledo in an accident last Thursday. The Independent News Reports Service Moria the slippery Devil wins the Gold Call 0891 33 77 Arsenal OB Ipswich Town 19 Sheffield Unitod IS Aston Villa 11 LocdB United 03 Sheffield Wod. 14 Birm.

City 34 Leicester City 35 Southhampton 20 Blackburn 21 Liverpool 04 Stoke City 30 Bolton 38 Man. City 02 Sundorland 27 Brentford 24 Man. United 01 Tottenham Hot. 07 Burnley 31 Middlesbrough 23 Wast Ham 12 Cholsoa 08 Mlllwall 29 Wimbledon 26 Coventry City 17 Newcastle Utd 16 Wolves 37 Derby County 28 Norwich City 18 Collie 09 Everton OB Notts Forest 13 Rangers 10 Hudd.Town 32 QPR 25 20 Wycombe Molfirbomugh 1 30 York i Bristol 2 THIRD DIVISION 31 Cambridge fldmul 1 32 Cardiff Torquay 1 33 Colchester Cheitur 1 34 Fulham Doncastor 38 Hartlepool Darlington 38 Herolord Proaton 2 37 Lincoln Rochdalo 1 38 Mansfield Scarborough 1 39 NortJiampton Footer 1 40 Plymouth Onont 1 41 ScurHhorpe Ollllngham 42Wlgan Bury 1 BELL'S SCOTTISH LEAQUE PREMIER DIVISION 43Ksrb fan 1 44 Kilmarnock Hibernian 45 Motherwell Partick 1 46 Rangera Railh Rvrs 1 SCOTTISH FIRST DIVISION 47 Dumbarton Alrdrie 1 48 Dundee Utd StMIrron 49 Dunfermline Clydebank 1 50 Gr Morton Dundee 2 51 Hamilton StJohnstonu 1 SCOTTISH SECOND DIVISION 82 Ayr Utd Forfar 2 53 Clyde Berwick 1 54 East File Montrose 1 OS QueonofSth Stranraer 1 86 8tenhaamulr Stirling A 1 SCOTTISH THIRD DMStON 87 Albion Cowdenbeath 2 88 Alloa Arbroath "1 Mk CMUNO PREMIERSHIP 1 Blackburn Aston Villa 1 2 Ballon Mlddlosbro 2 3 Coventry Hottm Forest 4 Everton Man Utd 2 9 OPR ShollWod 1 6 Southampton Hewcaatlo 2 7 Tottenham Loads 0 Wimbledon Liverpool 2 ENDSLEIOM LEAQUE FIRST DIVISION 9 Huddorsflfttd Ipewlch it 10 Millwall Bamslcy 1 11 Oldham WoslBrom 1 12 PortVario Portsmouth 1 13 Holding Luton 1 14 Shell Utd Norwich 2 15 Sundoriand Southend 1 16 Tranmere Charlton 1 17 Watford Sloko 1 IB Wolves Grimsby 1 SECOND DIVISION 12 Blackpool Stockport 1 20 Bristol Brighton 1 21 Carlisle Bumlsy 22 Crowe Shrewsbury 1 23 Hull Oxford 24 Notts Co Dourrwmth 2 25 Rotliorham Brontford 2 26 Swindon chestodiold 1 27 Walsall swansoa 2 28 Wrexham Bradford 1 Vic BatcheMer TWO major surprises in Sunday's Benson and Hedges Cup games involved the appearance of Steve Moria in a Cardiff Devils sweater and the Nottingham Panthers' 4-3 victory at Sheffield over the much-vaunted Steelersside. Moria gained a last-minute clearance to complete Cardiff trio of imports thanks to the intervention of the English Ice Hockey Association chairman Ken Taggart in his role as a BIHA mediator.

He brokered an agreement be Burger King..