Legend hangs up her boots

A match between the USA and Mexico in Carson, California has witnessed the end of one of the most glittering careers in international football.

Mia Hamm - named in FIFA’s list of 125 greatest living players earlier this year - played in her 276th and last women’s international. In a career spanning 17 years, she netted a remarkable 158 goals and won two World Cup winners’ medals and two Olympic golds.

Writing in The Times, Peter Lansley reflected on the Mia phenomenon:

“Young girls grew up wanting to wear Hamm’s No 9 shirt and the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) was a sensational if short-lived success. Bend It Like Beckham, the hit film, and increasing crowds for England’s matches helped to accelerate the popularity of women’s football in England, where next summer the 2005 European Championship will be staged at grounds such as Ewood Park and the City of Manchester Stadium. At 32 and with her powers clearly on the wane, Hamm, married to Nomar Garciaparra, the Boston Red Sox baseball player, goes out on a high after helping the US to win the Olympic tournament in Athens.”

Born in Alabama in 1972, Mia is quoted as saying:

“Am I going to miss football? Absolutely, but I just know it’s right. I get pangs in my heart when I call my sister and talk to my nephews or when I see them and they’ve grown another six inches. I want to be part of their lives.”

Toffees hold advantage ahead of derby clash

While Liverpool face a win-or-bust clash with Olympiakos in the Champions’ League at Anfield tonight, Everton can prepare for Saturday’s 171st league Mersey derby with an unaccustomed comfortable points advantage over their nearest and dearest rivals.

With David Moyes leading the blue half of Liverpool in to an unexpected assault on next year’s Champions’ League places, they go into the weekend’s big game at Goodison Park in third place and fully nine points ahead of the Reds.

It’s nearly two decades since Everton had such a significant points lead as they kicked-off a derby clash.

With the Canon League Championship Trophy already proudly displayed in the Goodison trophy cabinet, Liverpool travelled across Stanley Park on Thursday 23 May 1985 for legendary manager Joe Fagan’s last league game in charge. They were ten points behind Howard Kendall’s champions.

The gap increased to 13 points as Paul Wilkinson’s only-goal-of-the-game also established a new First Division points record of 90.

The Toffees’ line-up that night was: Neville Southall, Gary Stevens, John Bailey, Kevin Ratcliffe, Pat Van Den Hauwe, Kevin Richardson, Alan Harper, Paul Wilkinson, Andy Gray, Ian Atkins (sub: Robbie Wakenshaw) and Kevin Sheedy.

Of course, Everton’s anticipated qualification for the following season’s European Cup was to be dashed by the consequences of the tragic events at the Heysel Stadium six days later.

Stat Note: The 1985/86 edition of the Rothmans Football Yearbook incorrectly records the attendance for the Mersey derby at Goodison Park on 23 May 1985 as 15,045. The correct figure is 51,045.

The draw was made yesterday for the third round of the FA Cup.

For the first time at this stage of the competition, no Premiership clubs were drawn against each other.

The ties - drawn by Gary Pallister and Tony Cascarino who were opponents in the 1994 Final between Manchester United and Chelsea - are:

Arsenal v Stoke City
Swindon Town or Notts County v Middlesbrough
Manchester United v Exeter City
Plymouth Argyle v Everton
Leicester City v Blackpool
Derby County v Wigan Athletic
Sunderland v Crystal Palace
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Millwall
Yeading v Newcastle United
Hull City v Colchester United
Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion
Reading v Stockport County or Swansea City
Birmingham City v Leeds United
Hartlepool United v Boston United
Milton Keynes Dons v Peterborough United
Oldham Athletic v Manchester City
Chelsea v Scunthorpe United
Cardiff City v Blackburn Rovers
Charlton Athletic v Rochdale
West Ham United v Norwich City
Sheffield United v Aston Villa
Preston North End v West Bromwich Albion
Rotherham United v Yeovil Town
Burnley v Liverpool
AFC Bournemouth v Chester City
Coventry City v Crewe Alexandra
Watford v Fulham
Ipswich Town v Bolton Wanderers
Portsmouth v Gillingham
Northampton Town v Southampton
Queens Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest
Luton Town v Hinkley United or Brentford

Ties to be played on the weekend of 8 / 9 January 2005.

Dragons hit by sporting sanction

Wrexham were placed in administration yesterday, and became the first Football League club to be subjected to a ‘sporting sanction’.

Wales’ oldest professional club have suffered an immediate deduction of ten points and have dropped down from 16th to 22nd in the League One table.

An official Football League statement explained the sanction:

“Following notification that Wrexham Football Club has today been made the subject of an Administration Order at the High Court in Manchester, The Football League has confirmed that the club will be deducted ten points in accordance with its Regulations. This sporting sanction, which was voted into place by The League’s member clubs in September 2003, takes immediate effect. The club can appeal against the sanction if it believes the insolvency events have occurred due to circumstances which are deemed to be unforeseeable and unavoidable. The club has seven days to lodge that appeal which will, thereafter, be considered by an independent panel.”

John Nagle, Head of Communications at The Football League, said:

“The sporting sanction itself is not intended as a punishment but rather as an attempt to balance the competitive advantage clubs receive by ridding themselves of debt. This sanction, which is fully supported by our member clubs, is designed to have a deterrent effect and to make directors more accountable to supporters for the way they run their clubs. In time, the threat of sanction, coupled with the other good governance measures introduced by The League over the last 18 months, should foster a more sustainable approach to managing football clubs and, hopefully, reduce the number of clubs needing to go into administration.”

Former Rangers boss succeeds Vogts

The Scottish Football Association yesterday confirmed Walter Smith as the new Scotland manager.

The SFA have chosen the former Rangers and Everton boss to succeed Berti Vogts, who quit his position at the beginning of last month after picking up just two points from the opening three World Cup qualifiers.

The Scotsman newspaper reports that Smith - who has been out of top-flight management since leaving Goodison Park more than two years ago - will appoint former Old Firm rival Tommy Burns as his assistant, Vogts’ No.2 having taken charge for the 4-1 friendly defeat from Sweden at Easter Road last month.

The 56-year-old spent a short spell as Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United towards the end of last season and was the hot favourite to succeed Vogts, with the likes of Gordon Strachan and Frenchman Phillipe Troussier also believed to have been in the running.

Smith won seven league titles with the Ibrox club, helping Rangers achieve a record-equalling nine in a row. He quit the Glasgow giants in 1998 as Rangers conceded the title to Celtic and lost the Scottish Cup final to Hearts.

He joined Everton in the same year but could not produce the success required on Merseyside and, with the club looking set for a relegation battle in 2002 and following an abysmal display in an FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Middlesbrough, he was sacked.

Smith had a short spell as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson before the return of Carlos Queiroz from Real Madrid.

Burns is currently Celtic’s head of youth development and will ask Parkhead boss Martin O’Neill and chief executive Peter Lawwell for permission to continue his association with the national team. He said:

“Walter has asked me to stay and work alongside him in the same capacity as I was in before. I’m thrilled to have been given that chance as I have always considered it a great honour to be involved with Scotland. I will be more than happy to do this but anything I do must be done with Celtic’s approval.”

Survey highlights unpopularity of FA

A long-awaited All Party Football Group survey was released yesterday. The APFG - which aims to raise parliamentary awareness on all levels of football policy - announced the results from their survey on football and its finances.

In reviewing the main points, Alan Keen MP - the group’s chairman - said:

“We were surprised that the clubs below the Premiership, where we would expect stronger loyalty to the FA, when asked about whether football needed to be regulated more, 50% said they would favour an independent regulator and only 49% favoured the FA. That’s a figure that may well have changed since February when we did the survey.”

Fellow group member Lord Faulkner added:

“It was surprising because the survey found there was concern at how it was run. The FA have one last chance to get it right.”

Other results from the survey found that lower-league clubs wanted more money from television revenue and a form of regulation for players’ agents.

Mr Keen stated:

“There were some surprising results and one or two that were not. Everyone will be slightly surprised that the majority of clubs were against the football debts rule - whereby football debts to players are paid before the cleaners and the tea lady when (the club are) in receivership. What was not surprising was 87% of the clubs said they were against clubs being able to move away from their communities. Wimbledon to Milton Keynes is the well-known example. It wasn’t surprising that clubs below the Premiership agreed that the Premiership should give 5% more of their television money to help clubs in lower divisions. Clubs thought the Government were not giving enough money to grassroots football. This survey shows very strongly that clubs below the Premiership are strongly in favour of regulation of agents. Up to 90% want regulation and want money back from agents by a levy or whatever means.”

A life-long Middlesbrough supporter, Mr Keen concluded:

“It’s not us who will change football. It’s the authorities who have to make those decisions, listening to the views we have gathered together.”

For more information, vist All Party Football

TV coverage reaches saturation point

One of the most influential figures in football has warned that too much television exposure could damage the Premier League.

Arsenal vice-chairman and FA board member David Dein has claimed that television coverage of football has reached saturation point and has left the game in “intensive care”.

Speaking at the Soccerex conference in Dubai, Mr Dein added:

“Perhaps we are getting to the stage where less is more. Television has been the driving force over the past ten years but we must constantly improve if we want to remain as the world’s leading league competition. We must monitor the quality of the product and ensure attendances do not decline, and we must balance that with the quantity of exposure on TV too.”

Trevor Birch - the man who withdrew his interest in the vacancy for FA chief executive - also spoke in Dubai about the dangers of escalating player salaries.

The former Leeds United, Everton and Chelsea chief executive said the top players were now in a “privileged position” as far as wages were concerned but this could soon change.

He explained:

“This is down to one factor: Sky television and the income it has brought in. We are in an unsustainable, fragile position. If the next TV deal is not as much, player salaries will be adversely affected. Media rights have a huge impact. In the last 10-15 years, the players have gained the ascendancy over the clubs. Football is not like other normal businesses because of its unreal competitive nature.”