EURO 2008 DIGEST: THE BIG PHIL to Chelsea yarn has dominated British coverage of the tournament this week with interest levels forcing the Portuguese association to cancel their first scheduled press conference after the defeat of the Czech Republic and then attempt to limit the amount of time devoted to the manager's future when the media were allowed to drop by on Saturday.
In trawling over the Brazilian's career and picking out some of his more remarkable quotes, however, the English press may have stumbled on the real benchmark by which Roman Abramovich weighs up his would-be Chelsea managers: their politics.
Jose Mourinho always refused to discuss his but with his family having prospered under the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal when he was growing up and then lost property after it was toppled, it is widely believed that he is not of the left.
Scolari, however, has been entirely forthright about the type of leadership he likes and is on the record as being an admirer of that great abuser of human rights, General Agusto Pinochet. "He may have tortured a lot, but there is no illiteracy is Chile," he says.
Swiss training for the future
FOR THE Swiss this tournament seems to have been almost as much about showcasing the nation's admittedly very impressive public transport system as it has about the football - more so, perhaps, in the wake of the national team's early demise.
The rail company, which like many things here has many names depending on which part of the multi-lingual country you're in, is clearly over its disappointment with last week's defeat by Turkey and already looking forward to better times ahead.
The new issue of its magazine, Via, contains an interview with Kobi Kuhn's successor, Ottmar Hitzfeld, in which the former Bayern Munich boss, playing to his audience perhaps, says that he is looking forward to travelling to the likes of Basle, Lucerne and Zurich and, "hopes to get there by train".
A no doubt excited interviewer immediately asks if he travels by train much. "No," he promptly admits. "When I travel with teams, it is usually by plane or luxury bus".
Petit has some fun tales to tell in his autobiography
PLENTY OF sightings over here of former players working for their respective country's media organisations including French World Cup winners with seven of the team that triumphed on home soil in 1998 now helping to cover their country's rather miserable start to these championships for the media back home.
So, far, though, no sign of Emmanuel Petit which is a pity because to judge by the excerpts of his forthcoming autobiography carried in the Spanish media and reported by Football 365, the former Arsenal midfielder has some fun tales to tell.
"She was a very nice girl and once we had sex in the hotel billiard room," he apparently recalls of one trip away.
"The next morning, the hotel director and the staff greeted me with applause and told me that the room had security cameras installed and they saw everything. Fortunately, they were all Arsenal supporters so they didn't use the images."
The website also mentions his account of an end-of-season party on board a sheikh's yacht that had "prostitutes, models and cocaine everywhere".
Needless to say, the author makes it clear that he abstained on all fronts on that occasion.
Peacock spreads his wings
THE MOST interesting thing about the news last week that Gavin Peacock intends to study for an MA in Divinity studies at Ambrose Seminary isn't the fact that he's prepared to chuck a well-paid number at the Beeb - any footballer who tries as a 19-year-old to organise bible readings for other squad members clearly has the courage of his convictions - it's that he is apparently touting himself around the various churches as a free agent. "He will become a pastor, vicar or minister," ran the story, "depending on which denomination he chooses to follow."
Is it just the incurable footballer in him or did somebody win a "Bosman" in that walk of life too?
Poll argues for common sense
THE SCALE of retired English referee Graham Poll's unpopularity has always been quite something to behold and after his three-card trick in Germany a couple of years ago, there has been some celebration in England and Holland of his pronouncements on the controversial Ruud van Nistelrooy goal against Italy last week.
Poll provides expert analysis to the BBC and the Daily Mailon the game's rules and how they are applied by match officials and afterwards he announced it was "difficult to understand" how the Swede and his linesman made such a remarkable "error".
In a subsequent Mailcolumn he'd moved on to arguing that "common sense" dictated that the goal should have been disallowed but failed to clarify whether he felt it would have provided grounds for ignoring the actual rule book had he been in charge of the game.
