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Belarus missed their two best players as Ukraine pipped them for a World Cup play-off spot. Paul Roberts explains why some saw sinister motives at work

"It was treachery and disgraceful,” said the Belarus coach Eduard Malofeyev. He was referring to the performance of his two key midfielders, Oleksandr Khatskevich and Valentsin Belkevich, after his team’s 2-0 home defeat in the crucial World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on September 2. Khatskevich was substituted at half-time and Belkevich on the hour. The two players then re­fused to travel to Wales for the final qualifier (“still ash­amed of themselves” according to Malofeyev) which a demoralised and weakened Bel­arus lost 1-0. This allowed Ukraine to snatch the group five play-off place at the death, thanks to a controversial late goal by Andriy Shevchenko in Poland.

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With growing doubts over football's dependence on TV, we asked five people from diverse areas of the game where they thought the relationship was going

Michael Dunford – chief executive, Everton
"I think the general assumption – rightly or wrongly – is that it would be unrealistic for any­one inside football to put hand on heart and say they believe that the prices paid for television rights will continue to keep rising. The general belief is that, in terms of price, we have now peaked – and once you have peaked there is only way to go.

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The recent wrangle ove coverage of the World Cup is only one symptom of the fear that the TV rights boom is over. Alan Tomlinson looks at the ramifications for FIFA

Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, is the quintessential marketing man, a salesman for sport’s biggest ev­ent, the World Cup. You’d think it would be the eas­iest selling job in the world. Guido Tognoni, FIFA’s top me­dia man for ten years until 1994, once told me: “In FIFA you don’t have to sell the product, it’s a self-seller. FIFA lives from one event, the World Cup, and this event lives from marketing and television receipts.”

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Steve Morgan on the ups and downs of being a Portsmouth fan

Verdict so far on the Milan Mandaric regime?
Mandaric has put his money where his mouth is. On paper, this is the strongest squad we’ve had in years – the signing of Robert Prosinecki could be a masterstroke if he loses some weight. Mandaric talks a good game too. He criticised the club for having been run along “mom and pop” lines – a spot-on analysis of the last 30 years. However, he seems a trifle impatient: rejuvenation is likely to take between five and ten years. The much-vaunted move to the goods yard adjacent to Fratton Park is no nearer fruition, although planning permission has been granted and there seem to be even more roadworks than usual at the proposed access road for it.

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Dear WSC
In his anxiety to demolish the “myth” that it is more difficult to play away than at home, Cameron Carter (WSC 174) runs the risk of perpetuating a bigger one. He describes the Doncaster Rovers team of 1946-47, which won 18 of their 21 League games in Division Three Nor­th, as “a very young team, just back from the Second World War, who knew hardly anything about each other”. It is true that the players had returned from the war, but this magnificent team was far from being a bunch of callow youngsters thrown together in a hurry. The average age, for example, was 27, and the oldest, skipper Bob MacFarlane (34), was one of four players who had re­presented the club before the war. True, the likes of Clarrie Jordan (42 goals in 41 games) and Paul Todd (24 in 40) had no Football League experience, but they were in their mid-twenties and had taken part in some of the highly competitive football going on in the latter years of the war. The team was a classic combination of youth leavened with a heavy dose of experience. As well as the aforementioned 18 away wins, the team took 72 points from 42 matches (105 points had three for a win been available) and won the title by some distance. As Cameron would say – analyse that!
John Coyle, via email

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