Sport cries foul over football's Lottery ploy

Inside Lines

Suggestions that Lottery money could be used to bail out financially stricken Football League clubs, an idea floated by Government sources last week, have been met with a hostile reaction by the rest of sport. One senior administrator angrily declared it would be the "last straw" in sport's deteriorating relationship with the Government. "This is just not on. There are so many genuine areas of sport which need more Lottery assistance. Why should it be given to football clubs, who have got into this position largely through their own incompetence?" The idea is that there would be Government support for a Football Association plan to take cash from the £750 million available to sport through the New Opportunities Fund to underwrite "community schemes" by Nationwide League clubs, many of whom are in danger of collapse following the ITV Digital affair. But there are fears this could be diverted into paying players' wages, which is against Lottery regulations. "Such Lottery money must be outside political influence," says David Sparkes, the chief executive of British swimming. "I have no problem with football clubs getting help, provided they are amateur clubs who need it. To use money to prop up professional football is wrong. We should be putting money into those sports who need it, not the likes of Scunthorpe United." At least one member of the funding panel agrees, describing the notion as "outrageous". If Lottery rules are to be manipulated in this way there are more deserving cases than football, such as revitalising Crystal Palace (the stadium, not the club) and securing the future of the annual English Schools Athletics Championships, now facing extinction.

Baxter's hopes are not to be sniffed at

Sport has long provided nice little earners for m'learned friends in the United States, and it is becoming increasingly the same here. Getting a good brief can be expensive, but obviously worth it, as the Chelsea footballer John Terry is aware after walking free last week following charges of assault and affray. He had hired Desmond Da Silva QC, who successfully secured the acquittal of Lee Bowyer in the Leeds case and before that the Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers on charges of conspiring to fix matches. With the current wind of benevolence wafting around sports personalities in legal matters these days, there is every reason for the British skier Alain Baxter to feel upbeat about his appeal in London this week to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the confiscation of his Olympic bronze medal. He, too, will have a top sporting QC, Michael Beloff, in his corner. As his three-month ban for sniffing a dodgy tube of Vick has already been lifted, there are hopes that the Scot will keep his gong. Beloff doesn't come cheaply, and a "fighting fund" has been set up by Baxter's supporters to pay costs of around £25,000.

Cash on the line for the upwardly mobile

As more members of the upwardly mobile set embrace sport it seems appropriate that sport itself should start profiting from the phones they use. A new scheme is being planned whereby those seeking up-to-the-minute information and results in a growing number of sports, from major to minor, can use a specially designed sports mobile-phone system. A substantial slice of the cost of calls is scheduled to be ploughed back into the grass roots of the sports involved. It is an innovative idea which, say the organisers, can also be used as a teaching aid in schools and universities, as well as by volunteers involved in organising sports for young people. Further information from www.onlyforsport.com

Strange how rifts always seem to appear when fighters are on the way down. Between them, Mike Tyson and Naseem Hamed are discarding trainers hand over fist. Tyson has just fired Ronnie Shields, who follows Tommy Brooks out of his corner, while Hamed, previously tutored by Brendan Ingle and Emanuel Steward, has now parted company with Oscar Suarez, who claims that the picky Prince "isn't hungry any more".

Hungry or not, with TV backers HBO and Sky fast losing interest, he could be open to reasonable offers from the BBC, who are desperate for a crowd-pleasing attraction like the Sky-contracted Ricky Hatton. Six-figure overtures have been made to David Haye, the spectacular heavyweight who missed out on Commonwealth gold because of a freak injury. The Beeb would like to double-feature him with Audley Harrison. Meanwhile, they have beaten Sky to the punch for a delayed screening of the Roy Jones-Clinton Woods world light-heavyweight title fight on Sunday.

From zeros in Sydney to heroes in Manchester. No wonder covetous eyes are being cast in the direction of big Bill Sweetenham, the Aussie coach who has put Britain back in the swim.

Fortunately he is under contract until after the Athens Olympics, otherwise the Canadians, without a Commonwealth Games gold for the first time in decades, would be jumping in after him. They have already invited British swimming chief David Sparkes to tell them how it was done, and now a visiting Saudi prince says he wants to tap British expertise to get the sport up and swimming there. There is also a suggestion that the Saudis could do for swimming what Dubai has for golf and racing in terms of a major prize-money event.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

I find comments boring. I was never a watcher. Sir Garry Sobers on why he has never become a television pundit... I never try to make a right decision. I make a decision and then try to make it right. Martin O'Neill gives his recipe for good management... I'm Russian, I have to go back there. Anna Kournikova declines to say if she knew if a Russian mafia boss, implicated in the great skating scandal, has links with tennis... Part of me hopes the game goes belly up. Stephen Hendry is fed up with snooker's administration.