Football: Scotland join England in Euro seedings

Scotland and England have both been seeded for the qualifying phase of the 2000 European Championship.

The two join Italy, Russia, Yugoslavia, Norway, Romania, Spain and the holders, Germany, as the seeded nations for the draw, that will take place next month in Ghent, Belgium.

The World Cup hosts, France, have missed out, however, despite being ranked ahead of five of those countries. The seedings were based on a coefficient of results from qualifying for Euro 96 and next year's World Cup. France did not qualify for the 1994 World Cup and, as hosts, did not participate in qualifying for 1998.

Uefa deferred until February a decision on returning a place in next season's Uefa Cup to the winners of the Coca-Cola Cup.

"I will be in contact with England and Spain to discuss the possibility of reduction from 20 to 18 teams," the Uefa general secretary, Gerhard Aigner, said. The size of the Premiership had been the stumbling block.

The Football League believe the adjournment is not a negative step, as it means Uefa have not rejected their case out of hand.

"Given the recent speculation over an earlier decision, this is a little disappointing," the Football League chairman, David Sheepshanks, said. "However, there is now growing support for our case amongst many influential figures in the game and I am hopeful of a positive outcome."

Uefa also announced that the he Intertoto Cup will continue for another two years with the hope that the revamped competition will attract more leading clubs.

Saboteurs installed a timing device aimed at cutting off electrical power at last Thursday's World Cup draw ceremony in Marseilles.

Police investigators were called at half-time during the pre-ceremony exhibition match between Europe and the Rest of the World in the packed Stade Velodrome, after electrical workers discovered that intruders had broken into a power transformer a few hundred yards away.

They discovered a timing system that would have paralysed equipment used to restore power in the event of a black-out. The timer had malfunctioned. Police sources said the timer was merely electronic and not connected to any explosives.

Doncaster Belles went back to the top of the Premier League after a 3- 1 victory at Croydon yesterday. Belles came back from a goal down to win, Karen Walker scoring twice and Vicky Exley hitting a superb solo goal.

Arsenal secured a 2-1 win at Liverpool Ladies with goals from their England pair, Natasha Daly and Carol Harwood.