Inside Lines: Hoey: closing time for £60,000 talking shop

The row rumbles on over the cost of the so-called "sports summit" run jointly by the BBC and UK Sport, which has angered many who believe the money could have been used more beneficially in some of sport's deprived areas. Among them is the former sports minister Kate Hoey, who when she raised ithe issue in Parliament was told that UK Sport picked up the £60,000 tag. The BBC, who did all the trumpeting and extracted the publicity, paid nothing. Part of that £60,000 even went towards the use of the BBC's own Television Centre for the day-long conference, which included lunch and drinks for more than 300 guests. "Frankly, I am appalled that such use should have been made of taxpayers' money," says Hoey. "Sixty thousand pounds may not mean much to Greg Dyke, or apparently to UK Sport, but to small sports clubs who are struggling to survive and would not even have been invited, it is an awful lot to see frittered away in this manner. I hope they will reconsider any plans to repeat such a costly exercise." Hoey received a personal invitation "but I didn't think it worthwhile attending. There are so many of these talking shops and nothing ever comes of them". UK Sport say that the cost of the gathering "would have been the same had it been held at the BBC or elsewhere", that the debate raised several relevant issues, and was worthwhile. However, some MPs agree with Hoey and feel that even more relevant issues, such as why the BBC do not have a dedicated sports channel, should have been on the agenda. The Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, says organising such events is in line with UK Sport's Royal Charter. However, unlike the Beeb's Only Fools And Horses, regular repeats now seem unlikely.

Double and strife as Sven's minder goes

Sven Goran Eriksson has a couple of good reasons to be rueful at the departure of his minder, communications chief Paul Newman, from the Football Association. Since the exit of Adam Crozier, Newman has been Eriksson's closest ally at Soho Square; moreover, the ex-BBC man bears a distinct lookalikeness to the England coach and has even been mistaken for him at overseas press conferences. The duo were often inseparable, and some hacks believe the FA even tried a Saddam-style decoy operation when Eriksson was under siege during the Ulrika crisis. Like many poachers who became the game's keepers, Newman forfeited his affinity with old journalistic muckers once he crossed the line, often effecting an Alastair Campbell-like aloofness. A high-profile redundancy victim of the FA's week of the long knives, he is unlikely to be replaced; his role is to be incorporated by the ubiquitous David Davies, another former Beeb correspondent who has emerged as the real power in his new capacity as head of football affairs. This gives him more clout, and a higher salary, than any incoming chief executive.

Sport short-changed at the cheque-out

Is there an outbreak of writers' cramp in the government department which dispenses the cash that has been promised to sport? Apparently, officials are finding it too painful to sign on the dotted line, which is why several organisations say they are fed up with waiting or being fobbed of with "the cheque's in the post". UK Athletics have yet to see a penny of the £40m compensation for Picketts Lock going belly-up; tardiness is admitted over pledged payments to football's youth development scheme; and the National Association for Sports Development still await £60,000 promised a year ago by the sports minister. His office says it was always earmarked for this year's budget but that, er, the cheque's in the post.

Did Carl Lewis cheat to win a gold medal even before the now-revealed positive tests for banned stimulants which preceded the 1988 Olympics? Suspicion has long hovered over his performance in the inaugural World Athletics Championships, held in Helsinki in 1983.

At the time, rumours were rife that there had been a positive sample taken from a top athlete which was poured away on the orders of the late president of the then International Amateur Athletics Federation, Primo Nebiolo. This was confirmed some time later in an off-the-record conversation with one of Nebiolo's former aides. Apparently the autocratic Dr Nebiolo had demanded a "clean" championships at any price. Many believed at the time, and still do, that the athlete in question was Lewis. We may never know for sure. But what we do know is that at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where Lewis won four golds, all records of a number of test results were also destroyed, allegedly accidentally.

Comebacks are catching. Never mind Frank Bruno, there's another old kid on the heavyweight blocks.

At 31, the former World Boxing Organisation champion Herbie Hide, once of Norwich, has returned from his new base in Las Vegas as the latest recruit to the BBC's boxing portfolio.

He reckons he's ready to pulverise the best, but he needed seven rounds to stop journeyman Derek McCafferty, afterwards gracelessly dismissing his opponent as "a bum". As he also terms Audley Harrison "a fat pig who can't fight", it is easy to see why Hide is so unloved in the game. He's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is and, like Bruno (see page 11), seems in danger of becoming a victim of his own vanity.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

We will see a unique play in the original theatre. Athens 2004 president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki promises the Olympics will be all right on the night... I can only think he must be out of his mind. Former promoter Mickey Duff is not enamoured with Frank Bruno's comeback plans...What they are doing to courses now, they are leaving this sport open to steroids. Nick Price believes golf is becoming a game of strength... Perhaps they shouldn't go out in the sun so much. TVam presenter Penny Smith when told she should call Manchester United "The Reds"