Sir Alex relaxes his BBC boycott

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson

has co-operated this week with the BBC

for the first time on a football interview since

being infuriated by the May 2004 documentary

about his agent son Jason's transfer dealings.

Fergie was being inducted into the Dunfermline

Athletic Hall of Fame in honour of his

goalscoring feats in the Sixties, when he scored

66 goals in 88 games — a three-season period he

regards as the best of his playing career.

After the ceremony, Fergie was prepared to do

an interview with BBC Radio Scotland sports

reporter Brian McLauchlin, provided the

questions were all about Dunfermline. It was

aired on BBC Scotland's sports programme

Sportsound on Thursday night.

However the BBC in England are still resigned

to Fergie never speaking to them again — unless

he receives an apology from the Director General,

which isn't going to happen. But at least

this Scottish radio breakthrough offers a glimmer

of hope for Match of the Day and Football

Focus.

Fergie's devout Premiership managerial disciples

Sam Allardyce and Harry Redknapp also

refuse to do BBC interviews after alleged slights

in documentaries — and in Allardyce's case that

includes BBC regional outlets as well.

All aboard the TV rights gravy train

The TV rights market is reaching saturation

point, with a number of sports putting out

tenders as early as possible in their

desperation to ride the same wave that has

delivered jackpot deals for the Premier

League and the FA.

As a result, the Football League, Champions

League, Six Nations, England and Wales Cricket

Board and Super League are all in the process

of finalising their tender documents, or have

already gone to the market.

This is despite their current TV deals, apart

from the Super League contract which finishes

next year, all running until 2009 and the big

spenders Sky and Setanta still recovering from

their massive football outlays.

Three in a bed spices up Soper opera

The three counties who

upset defeated ECB chairman

candidate Michael

Soper by going

back on assurances of support

and switching at the

last minute to Giles Clarke

in the secret ballot are

understood to come from a

quartet of Worcestershire,

Middlesex, Yorkshire and

Sussex.

Mott's write for Andy

The long search to find a ghostwriter

prepared to collaborate with British No 1 tennis

star Andy Murray on his autobiography at the

grand old age of 20 has ended with Daily

Telegraph sports writer Sue Mott.

The book, for which publishers Random House

have paid a £1million advance, was due out

before this year's Wimbledon. But publication

has been delayed a year due to Murray's injuries

and the original difficulty in finding a writer

willing to spend time with the often-contrary

Murray for the ghost fee being offered.

Coincidentally, the first journalist talked to

about the project was another Telegraph

sports writer, Robert Phillip, who is divorced

from Ms Mott.

Kenyon and Dein allies in Europe

Warring football chiefs Peter Kenyon of

Chelsea and former Arsenal powerbroker

David Dein are due to speak on the same panel

at the International Football Arena conference

being held at FIFA's Zurich headquarters in

November.

The subject for discussion is different models

of football ownership and though Kenyon and

Dein were at battle stations over so many issues,

including the Ashley Cole tapping-up affair, they

now appear to be in agreement on this issue —

as in take the Russian money.

Kenyon has Roman Abramovich, while Dein's

favoured Russian Alisher Usmanov has spent

£120million in the last two months buying a 23

per cent and growing stake in Arsenal through

the Dein-chaired Red and White holdings.