Football: Hoddle denies falling out with Ferguson

Rift? What rift? Glenn Hoddle last night dismissed suggestions of a dispute between himself and the Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson.

After United's victory at Everton on Saturday, Ferguson announced that he would not be sending the injured Gary Neville, Gary Pallister or David Beckham to join the England squad at their Buckinghamshire headquarters to have their fitness checked ahead of Saturday's friendly match against Mexico. But after he and the England coach spoke on the phone at the weekend, Hoddle agreed that Pallister and Beckham should remain in Manchester for treatment.

"I was at the match where Gary and David got injured and it is down to my decision whether players must turn up," Hoddle said.

"I spoke to Alex and there wasn't a problem between us. He was only too pleased to let David and Philip step up. Philip will come in if Gary isn't 100 per cent fit."

Colin Hendry will shrug off the nagging pain from a long-standing groin injury to help Scotland's World Cup cause. The Blackburn centre-back will report for duty for Scotland's crucial matches against Estonia, at Kilmarnock on Saturday, and Austria, at Celtic Park next Wednesday.

Bobby Gould hopes Mark Hughes will recover from a groin strain to line up in his Wales team for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Belgium in Cardiff. Hughes appeared as a second-half substitute in Chelsea's 1- 0 defeat at Middlesbrough at the weekend, despite the injury. But he was not due to join a rendezvous for the rest of the Wales squad in Newport last night.

Belgium also have problems. Luc Nilis, their PSV Eindhoven striker, has pulled out of the squad. Belgium's coach, Georges Leekens, could also be without Philippe Albert, the Newcastle defender who has a knee injury, and Belgium's 1996 player of the year, Franky van der Elst, who has a groin problem.

English Premiership clubs could lose millions of pounds on the transfer market if Fifa, as expected, announces today that the "Bosman" ruling, giving free transfers to out-of-contract players, will be extended to cover footballers of all nationalities moving between clubs in European Union countries. At the moment, only European players become free agents at the end of their contracts.

The Professional Footballers' Association's chief executive, Gordon Taylor, was encouraged by the likely development, saying a move would mean clubs being less tempted to look abroad for their player purchases. "I think the stance is inevitable really, and looking positively it could encourage clubs to look more inwardly, if they are not going to get money back on purchases," Taylor said.

News from Portugal yesterday was far from encouraging for Manchester United fans who went to their club's European Cup match in Oporto on Wednesday. The Portuguese internal affairs minister, Alberto Costa, said yesterday that police were fully justified in firing rubber bullets and anti-riot pellets at United fans after the draw with Porto.

Costa said the police report into the clashes with some of the 10,000 visiting United fans showed that officers "performed their duty. They prevented what could have been a tragedy," he said.

Porto police said after last Wednesday's match that they fired on the fans to keep them from leaving the stadium before local supporters had dispersed. The United fans claimed police over-reacted and used excessive force, but Costa said that no official complaint had been received from the British authorities over the way police handled the incident.

Portsmouth have taken swift action following the crowd trouble at Queen's Park Rangers on Saturday by banning one supporter indefinitely. Play was stopped for 18 minutes and the players were taken off the field as trouble flared in two parts of Loftus Road. The Football Association will hold a full inquiry into the incident.

Fabrizio Ravanelli will be fit to lead the Middlesbrough attack against Leicester in the Coca-Cola Cup final on 6 April. The Italian international, who has scored 26 goals this season, has made good progress in his recovery from a hamstring injury.

Kenny Dalglish is poised to make the IA Akranes striker Bjarni Gudjonsson his first signing for Newcastle. The 18-year-old, who has played for Iceland's Under-21 side, has had trials with Liverpool and Newcastle, and is valued at about pounds 500,000.

Gillingham say Brighton must pay them pounds 300,000 rent, even if the troubled south coast club abandons plans to ground-share at the Priestfield Stadium.

The consortium trying to take over Brighton, led by Dick Knight, are hoping Albion can play their home games at Hove Greyhound Stadium for the next three years until a new stadium is built. However, Gillingham's chairman, Paul Scally, is adamant that his club want the money they have already been promised.

"Brighton signed an agreement to pay us pounds 150,000 a year for two years and whether they come to us or not that is our money," he said.