Siegler could make a mark for England

Markus Siesler, FIFA's highly-rated communications

chief, is the latest high-profile figure

to be leaving world football's governing body —

and his exit could be a major boost for England's

chances of hosting the World Cup in 2018.

Siegler, who is departing by mutual consent, is

understood to be joining a high-powered sports

consultancy agency who will be involved in the

bidding for the 2018 tournament.

Having Siegler on board, with his huge experience

and close contacts with all the global football

powerbrokers as a close aide to FIFA president

Sepp Blatter, would be a significant asset

to any bidding country.

England's attempt to be the World Cup host

country in 2006 was a failure from the start of

the process, mainly because there was so little

success in winning friends among the voting

FIFA executive committee.

Siegler's career change follows the extraordinary

decision by Blatter to make Jerome Valcke

the general secretary of FIFA soon after sacking

him as FIFA marketing boss following a New York

court judgement which accused him of telling

"lies, lies and lies" while negotiating to replace

Mastercard with Visa as World Cup sponsors.

Brito an absent friend

The one face missing among Jose

Mourinho's inner management team who

enjoyed that last lunch at Chelsea Harbour on

Thursday was Baltemar Brito.

So unexpected

was Mourinho's departure that Brito had been

sent to Manchester United's Champions League

tie in Lisbon to prepare for Chelsea's trip to Old

Trafford tomorrow.

Haq'd off

Pakistan batting great

Inzamam-ul-Haq,

who has hardly

scored a run for Yorkshire

since arriving at Headingley,

found himself the centre of

more controversy yesterday

when he was served with a

witness summons ordering

him to appear at the Darrell

Hair case starting on October

1.

Australian umpire

Hair, who hasn't officiated a

Test or ODI since his Oval bust-up with Pakistan

in August 2006, is suing the ICC and Pakistan

Cricket Board for racial discrimination.

Hill-Wood's gaffe does not impress Spurs

The Tottenham board won't be impressed

by Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood's

latest crass remark about it "not being

sensible" that Spurs invited Arsenal's estranged

vice-chairman David Dein into the White Hart

Lane boardroom for their derby last week.

Not

only was Dein the guest of Spurs top brass

David Buchler, whose daughter is married to

Dein's son, but he had other invites as well from

Daniel Levy, Paul Kemsley and Alan Sugar.

Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

can do no wrong at present. Invited to conduct

the raffle draw at the Variety Club Sports

Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, he picked

out his own ticket as the winner.

In the very blue corner

When Sky Sports News apologised twice for

world champion Ricky Hatton using the F-word

during yesterday's Press conference with Floyd

Mayweather ahead of December's welterweight

showdown in Las Vegas, it smacked of a typical

boxing publicity stunt.

But Ricky was just being

his normal self. He can't stop swearing every

other word — in private or in public.

Racy rugby star plans to come out

Welsh rugby will be hit by a controversy

likely to cause as much of a stir as would an

unthinkable defeat by Fiji in their deciding

qualifying game next Saturday.

One of the

Wales World Cup squad intends to out himself

after the tournament. His partner is a middle-aged

used car dealer from Central Glamorgan.