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Suddenly, all official club websites look alike. It's another triumph for commerce over diversity and independance, says Jan Lotze

In a move which proves that the desire for money will always overrule quality, all 72 Nat­ionwide League clubs, and a handful in the Premiership, have effectively handed over control of their official web­sites to Prem­ium TV, a subsidiary of the broadcaster NTL. Lured by an initial six-figure fee, and with the pro­mise of further revenue dependent on traffic and the number of “referrals” to an on­line bet­ting shop, clubs have opted to buy and oper­ate the PTV soft­ware for the next five years.

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David Stubbs reviews Mike Bassett: England manager as Ricky Tomlinson takes England to the World Cup

So, England’s manager has had a heart attack during the qualifying stages of the World Cup, to be held in Brazil. In a smoke-filled room at FA headquarters, the powers-that-be realise that for want of better applicants, they must approach Norwich City man­ager Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson) for the England job. They need one win from their last three games to qualify. However Bassett, whose tactical nous doesn’t appear to extend beyond blustering about pressure, com­mit­ment and 4-4-2, very nearly makes a balls-up of it.

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As he reaches the compulsory retirement age for Premiership referees, Barnsley official Stephen Lodge spoke to Mike Ticher about the pressure and pleasures of modern refereeing, the impact of recent law changes and the new career of Neil Midgely 

What has been the single biggest change in refereeing since you came on to the League list in 1987?
There’s far more professionalism, both on and off the field. Far more time is spent on training. Expectations are a lot higher now, mainly because referees have become a household name since the advent of the Sky contract, which has raised the profile of everybody involved. A lot of supporters might disagree, but I think the standard at Premiership level is going up, largely thanks to the in-service training the referees receive and the fitness programmes which are structured for individuals by the FA at Lilleshall. Three or four weekends a year we’re taken away for meetings together where we look at videos and attempt to become somewhere near 100 per cent consistent with each other. The professionalism now is much greater.

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Africa's ambition of hosting the World Cup lies in ruins, writes Alan Duncan

The wailing outside Accra’s Military Hospital in the hours after the May 9 clash between Ghanaian giants Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak confirmed the worst – 126 fans killed fol­lowing a stampede sparked by security forces who had fired volleys of tear gas into the popular Ade Coker Stand.

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Even by the standards of the Scottish League, Airdrie have sailed appalingly close to extinction in recent weeks. Ken Gall looks for someone to blame and comes up with a cast of thousands

While attention in Scotland was fixed, as ever, on the Old Firm, the real poignancy – again, as ever – lay elsewhere; at New Broomfield, the home of Airdrie­onians FC, where a major financial crisis looked like­ly to put an end to more than a century of senior football. The Dia­monds, and their putative financial and footballing saviour Steve Archibald, appeared to be on the verge of a potentially fatal defeat at the hands of the mean-spirited and seemingly impregnable defence of the club’s appointed liquidators, KPMG. The story, however, may be slightly less straightforward.

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