Fulham fans are desperate to return to Craven Cottage, but maybe it is not viable. Neil Hurden investigates

Braving Arctic weather and pavements more slippery than Nicolas Anelka’s agent, 400 Ful­ham fans attended the Back to the Cottage Campaign’s public meeting on January 30. The venue, Hammersmith Town Hall, is a place intimately linked with the struggle for Craven Cottage’s survival: 16 years ago it saw the noisy birth of the campaign which fought off the Fulham-QPR merger plan. Now we were back, a little more subdued and confused but not without hope that London’s oldest and, in our view, finest ground can still be preserved.

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The official Italians blame for their World Cup exit has defended his decisions and now entered the world of politics. But not, as Ben Lyttleton writes, to good effect

Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno took ad­vantage of a suspension recently to confront the critics that blamed him for Italy’s World Cup defeat to South Korea. Moreno appeared on RAI TV’s Stupido Hotel carrying a briefcase stuffed with bank-notes before claiming he was right to dismiss Francesco Totti and disallow a Damiano Tomassi golden goal in the sum­mer. “I don’t think I was the major cause of Italy’s World Cup exit, and I don’t need to apol­ogise,” said the man nicknamed El Just­iciero – The Sheriff – in his homeland. “I’ve always fought against dishonest players and dangerous play. After the Portugal v USA match I was marked 8.5 out of ten and I got an even better mark for the Italy v Korea match. The Italians were looking for excuses.”

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Ivan Campo moved to Bolton Wanderers to escape the torture of Real Madrid, but as Sid Lowe writes, he may have gone to the wrong place

When Iván Campo swapped Madrid for Bol­ton, few tears were shed – least of all by Campo himself. “Leaving meant I could start enjoying life again,” he said after his goalscoring Prem­iership debut. With Rodney Marsh’s words ringing in his ears, Campo may wish to revise that opinion now, but it was born of the sad truth that his Real Madrid career was as troublesome as his English adventure has turned out to be.

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A Swedish television show recently hooked up the national coaches with microphones, similar to Graham Taylor. As Marcus Christenson notes, it also hasn't gone down well

In hindsight, Sweden coaches Lars Lagerbäck and Tommy Söderberg should probably have asked Graham Taylor for advice before agreeing to have microphones on them during last summer’s World Cup. But they didn’t – and now sections of the media are calling for their resignations after television broadcast some of their conversations during the team’s games. Like Taylor, who was filmed giving nonsensical orders to substitute Nigel Clough during a game with Norway in 1993, the two Swedish coaches have not come out of the pro­ject look­ing particularly clever. The fiercest criticism has been reserved for their half-time chat ag­ainst Senegal when they discuss whether to substitute Aston Villa striker Marcus Allbäck.

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Leeds United's financial dealings are coming under scrutiny

Televison cameras picked up Peter Rids­dale slumped in his seat during Leeds United’s match at Goodison Park, to where travelling fans had brought ban­ners reading, among others, “Lies Uni­ted” and “PLC = Pathetic Leeds Chairman”. In view of the fact that he is receiving advice from PR expert Max Clifford, he might have unveiled one of his own: “Blame Liverpool”. If it hadn’t been for the latter’s cave-in over the last few fix­tures of 1999-2000, Leeds wouldn’t have finished third and qualified for the Cham­p­ions League, with all the unfortunate effects it has now brought.

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