Bates pours cold water on PFA bash

Leeds chairman Ken Bates, who is never far from controversy, kicked off the Christmas festive season of sports functions by walking out of a Professional Footballers' Association centenary bash, having paid £10,000 for his table.

Bates had taken his fellow Leeds United

directors and their partners as his guests to the

£1,000-a-head event, which was held in

the Manchester Central venue on Sunday

after the Legends game at Eastlands.

But the former Chelsea owner, who has been a

tax exile in Monaco since selling up to Roman

Abramovich, was upset that he had to pay extra

for the water on his table.

So Bates and his party departed back to

Leeds, where they had dinner instead at Italian

restaurant Bibis, one of his favourite haunts.

The PFA party featured appearances by

comedian Jack Dee as well as Mick Hucknall's

Simply Red, while other guests included rival

Manchester managers Sir Alex Ferguson and

Sven Goran Eriksson.

Bates, who used to take his own wine to official

pre-match VIP meals at Wembley, said: 'It was

an exceptional event, but unfortunately the

organisation was run of the mill.'

•
Nike are in danger of losing their prize

England rugby shirt supply deal to

arch-rivals adidas. The RFU have not been

impressed by how low down the list they are in

Nike's endorsement priorities.

The 2007

England World Cup shirt, with its unappealing

red swathe, has not been well received and

sales have been disappointing.

•
The way the BBC have set up

the Sports Personality of the

Year award, with a live satellite

link sorted out in Las Vegas and

voting only taking place during

the programme on Sunday

night, makes Ricky Hatton a

front runner to win if he beats

Floyd Mayweather a few hours

earlier.

The momentum Hatton would build up

with such a victory would make him hard to

beat in the programme. However, Joe Calzaghe, the other big boxing contender who

will also be in Las Vegas, received rapturous

applause yesterday when Lord Coe, speaking at

the Lord's Taverners Christmas lunch, said the

Welsh world super-middleweight champion

would win the prize 'if there was any justice'.

•
Harlequins showed hypocrisy of the

highest scale over the Barbarians match

against South Africa at Twickenham last

Saturday.

The club prevented their players

from taking part in the prestigious match but

that didn't stop their hospitality arm, Sporting

Class, providing car parking and catering for

the Twickenham match.

Murali's worst spell

The Sri Lankan cricket authorities have had

plenty of time to prepare for Muttiah

Muralitharan breaking Shane Warne's world record Test

wicket haul, yet in the commemorative folder

celebrating the occasion, they still managed to

spell six out of his eight milestone victims

incorrectly.

These included South African Shavn

Pollock, Australian Michael Casprovic and

England's late all-rounder Ben Holioake.

Meanwhile, Giles Clarke, the new chairman of

the England and Wales Cricket Board who is

never short of an opinion, is at least occupying

the high ground when he travels to Sri Lanka for

the second and third Tests. He has already paid

his own hotel bills up front.

Clarke's opponent for the chairmanship in last

September's vote, Mike Soper, had a public

reconciliation with Clarke at yesterday Lord's

Taverners lunch — the first time they have

spoken since the acrimonious election.

•
Graham Bean, the former FA bung-buster

who is acting for Blue Square Premier side

Rushden over a butting incident, has himself

been the victim of a 'Glasgow kiss'.

Bean had

been refereeing a Sheffield junior league

Under 14 match when he was attacked after the

final whistle by an irate parent whose son had

been booked. Bean has reported the incident

to the FA and the police.