Other soccer stories in brief
FAI start advisor process
The Football Association of Ireland's 10-man board of management kick-started the process of finding a successor to Steve Staunton as senior international manager when they met yesterday in Dublin to discuss contenders for the role of advisor on the appointment.
"Several people, with considerable football experience in the professional game, will now be approached to assess their willingness and availability to participate in the recruitment process and make a recommendation to the board of the association," said the brief statement issued following the meeting.
Former Irish internationals including Niall Quinn and Kevin Moran have been linked with the advisory role, as have former Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh, now Uefa's technical director, and David Davies, formerly executive director of the English Football Association.
Good news on Richards
Micah Richards gave England and Manchester City a boost yesterday when it was revealed the defender's knee injury was not as bad as first feared.
Richards, 19, was carried off on a stretcher after 73 minutes of Wednesday night's League Cup victory at Bolton. He recovered sufficiently, however, to tell manager Sven-Goran Eriksson he was fine when they left the Reebok Stadium.
No FA pact with Russia
The English Football Association have rejected a report that England may enter into a deal with Russia over the 2018 World Cup bid.
Russia are expected to be rivals for 2018 but a report yesterday suggested England might try to do a deal where they would back Russia for Euro 2016 in return for their support for 2018.
An FA spokesman said: "We totally reject any suggestion that there is a pact with Russia regarding our 2018 World Cup bid."
Bassett new Wise guy
Leeds boss Dennis Wise has installed Dave Bassett as his new number two at Elland Road. Bassett, who worked with Wise at Wimbledon, Leicester and Southampton, has signed a contract until the end of the season. He replaces Gus Poyet, who joined Tottenham as assistant manager to Juande Ramos.
Under-19s up against it
The Republic of Ireland under-19s face a real battle to stay in the Uefa Championships qualifying process after a disappointing 2-0 loss to Belarus yesterday.
Seán McCaffrey's side were well off the pace against an average Belarus side in the opening first-qualifying-round group fixture in the Portuguese city of Povoa do Varzim.
Although the Irish still have to meet Andorra and Portugal, they are now the rank outsiders after a game decided by a goal in each half. Belarus went ahead in the 37th minute when Valentin Radevich ran through to beat goalkeeper Shane Redmond. Maksim Vitus made it 2-0 with eight minutes left.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Redmond (Nottm Forest); Moloney (Nottm Forest), Breen (Man City), Lowry (Aston Villa), Earls (Aston Villa), Carey (Celtic), Fitzgerald (West Ham), Cahillane (Celtic) (Hutton (Tottenham, 74), I Daly (Man City) (Arter (Charlton, 46), Onwubiko (Bray Wanderers) (McDermott (Man City, 46), Fagan (Man Utd).
Fergusson calls it wrong
The Scottish League Cup semi-final draw descended into farce last night as a procedural error emerged hours after the clubs were told who they would face in the matches next January.
An apparent bungle concerning the numbers for the teams meant they were given the wrong opponents. Rangers, who were initially told they would face Aberdeen, will instead take on Hearts. And Dundee United will now be Aberdeen's opponents.
The Scottish Parliament's presiding officer, Alex Fergusson, made the error, which did not come to light in the immediate aftermath of the draw.
