John Turnbull reports on how a book about a Brit who played in the Soviet Union may not be all it seems

Russian studies expert Jim Riordan includes dramatic tales in his memoir published last year, Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played For Spartak. Such as a live cockroach appearing in the author’s cabbage salad at Moscow’s Higher Party School, where Riordan, a member of the British Communist Party, had enrolled. He also encounters Nikita Khrushchev, Yuri Gagarin and Lev Yashin and plays cricket with members of the Cambridge spy ring. Journalists and football historians in Russia have said little about these incidents. But regarding the central claim in Riordan’s book – that he started two home matches for Spartak Moscow in 1963, becoming the only Westerner to play in the top tier of Soviet football – they have one word: “nonsense”.

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Oil and gas has brought wealth to Kazakhstan but domestic football has seen little of this money, says Mark Gilbey

Kazakhstan’s president is an ambitious chap. Twelve years ago, deciding that he was bored with life in the capital, Almaty, Nursultan Nazarbayev opted to up sticks and build a new city 600 miles away in the desert. The move to Astana cost £10 billion, but money is no object for the oil and gas-rich Kazakhstani government. It’s just a shame that they aren’t football fans.

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Belgium’s linguistic and political split between Flemings and Walloons is now affecting its football, writes John Chapman

Belgium holds a unique place in western Europe as it’s the only country that is anywhere close to be being roughly equally divided along linguistic lines. The two halves – Flemings (Dutch speaking) and Walloons (French speaking) – are rarely united these days; there has not been a national show of unity since 1996 when 300,000 Belgians took to the streets in protest against the police’s apparently mishandled investigation into a series of internationally reported child murders by Marc Dutroux. Prior to that, there are memories of an outpouring of grief at the death of King Baudouin in 1993 and the 1986 return to the Grand Place of the “Red Devils” after they had reached the World Cup semi-finals in Mexico.

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Under fire from managers and pundits, confidence in refereeing is being ruined by terrible public relations, writes Nik Johnson

Referees are undergoing a crisis of confidence, their relations with managers and fans at an all time low. Not a weekend goes by without a manager appearing on Match of the Day to complain about a foul in the build-up to a goal, Andy Gray vehemently attacking a decision, or a 6.06 caller bitterly arguing that the referee cost them the game. Is the standard of refereeing so bad that games are routinely being ruined by their incompetence, or are there underlying problems that go further than just poor decision making?

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The experiment with goalline officials shows UEFA is attempting to improve refereeing, even if it will never be perfect. Simon Hart reports

“Football will remain, for the time being, a game for human beings… We will try to improve referees but you will never erase errors completely.” So said FIFA president Sepp Blatter on his March visit to Manchester, not long after the International Football Association Board had confirmed that tests with an extra official behind each goalline would continue. The “five-man” experiment began following FIFA’s rejection of video technology last year and the next testing ground may be a professional league next season – both the Italian and French authorities have already offered their assistance.

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