These things seem to be happening to us week in week out

These things seem to be happening to us week in, week out.His opposite number, Frank Clark, celebrating his 100th league match in charge at the City Ground, acknowledged that Jones’ dismissal took the gloss off the result. Television seemed to prove the Wimbledon captain’s point and, to make matters worse, Alcock chose to punish the offence with a free-kick, in an advantageous position for Forest just outside the penalty area, from which Stuart Pearce gave them a 2- 1 lead.”I thought the referee was just dreadful,” Kinnear said. There seemed nothing contentious about his second misdemeanour, a blatant obstruction of Bryan Roy in full flight, but it was the first that provoked his manager’s wrath.Jones was cautioned for dissent, complaining that Ian Woan should have been ruled offside in a goal attempt. JON CULLEY

Nottingham Forest 4 Wimbledon 1
Joe Kinnear, back on the touchline for the first time after his six- month banishment to the stands, stepped straight into fresh controversy after Forest inflicted a seventh straight defeat on his Wimbledon side at the City Ground last night.Forest’s victory was overshadowed by the sending-off of Vinnie Jones, the 10th dismissal of his career, an incident which prompted Kinnear to describe referee Paul Alcock’s handling of the match as “disgraceful”.Jones was ordered from the field after being shown the yellow card twice in the space of 12 minutes at the end of the first half. Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands and New Zealand are next on 1.8 The highest score was Uganda 9 Iran 8, in November 1989.. The reforms paid off at the 1994 World Cup in United States, where fans enjoyed an average of 2.7 per match.Iraq heads the list of scorers, netting nearly two per match between 1985 and 1995. It reached a high of 2.8 in 1993 and currently stands at 2.7.The disappointing World Cup finals in Italy in 1990 – with only 2.2 per match – prompted Fifa to introduce rule changes favouring attacking play.

The number of goals in international football matches is on the increase – but the World Cup holders, Brazil, have scored less than Iraq. In its biggest-ever survey, world football’s governing body, Fifa, yesterday published details of 12,865 goals scored in 5,119 matches over the past 10 years.
The match average was 2.5 goals in the mid-1980s In the late 1980s this slumped to just over two. ” I think at the time I cure everything,” he said enigmatically. “I always try to do the best for my team.” Could he, someone asked, hope to play again? “Yes,” he said. “I feel like a boy of 35 years old”.Maradona, who was flanked by his two young daughters, was finally enjoined to wear a scholar’s cap and gown before the Lord Mayor of Oxford presented him with a certificate bearing the inscription: “Master Inspirer of Oxford dreams.” The absence of any awkward questions about drugs allowed this master to dream on..

And that’s what I shall always be.”Inevitably, he was questioned over the Hand of God incident. “I always consider myself a simple man, a normal human being. In fact, he spoke at some length, giving an enthusiastic but rambling account of his footballing career and of his humble beginnings in a Buenos Aires shanty town, touching often upon the theme of joy-giving performers being spitefully quashed by small-minded authorities.His own subsequent “deification”, he said, did not bother him. They had not bothered with all that for Vanessa Mae the previous week.Before Maradona’s arrival, last night’s audience viewed replays of his infamous “hand of God” goal that put England on their way out of the 1986 World Cup finals. The jeers this piece of audacious cheating evoked were almost affectionate. Perhaps time is a healer after all.He began by saying that he was not going to speak for very long.

The invitation was proffered by a fellow Argentinian and long-standing family friend, Esteban Ciccello Hubner, who is this year’s president of the Oxford University L’Chaim Society, which has attracted an eclectic range of speakers to the Oxford Union’s stained glass chamber.Perhaps it tickled Maradona’s vanity to follow Mikhail Gorbachev, Dr Christian Barnard, Simon Wiesenthal and Javier Perez de Cuellar.Whether it was nervously engendered by Rabin’s fate, or whether it was standard practice for the Argentinian, all those present had to enter through a metal detector. He did, however, harangue his team-mates and throw food at the walls of his hotel restaurant.”I signed a contract only to play football for Boca,” he said with his customary diplomacy. “Not to take part in a Korean folk festival.”But the particular circumstances of this fixture dictated that he came over especially from Argentina to speak here. His address was prefaced by a dampener right out of after dinner stories – a silent tribute to the late Yitzhak Rabin, the assassinated Israeli prime minister who was to have addressed the union next year.
Maradona’s natural disinclination for public appearances was emphasised just over a month ago when he played his comeback match for Boca Juniors in South Korea 15 months after being ejected from the World Cup for taking five varieties of ephedrine-related drugs.He offended his Korean hosts by refusing to take part in promotional activities linked with the game He did not attend a children’s coaching session He did not visit the car plant of the match sponsors. Diego Armando Maradona had made another late run into position to receive the acclaim to which he has become accustomed in his 35 years on this earth. A stocky little man with a sparkling ear-ring and a curious ginger- striped hairstyle bounced belatedly into the Oxford Union chamber last night with a politician’s smile.

Hastings claims the SRU is looking to pay squad members pounds 20,000 per man, compared to the pounds 100,000 a man which he believes New Zealand players will earn when the Scots tour there next summer.THE PROPOSALS OF THE ENGLISH FIRST DIVISION CLUBSn English First Division Rugby Ltd to be collective voice for clubsn all monies raised from TV rights and sponsorship to be shared equally among First Division clubsn no TV contracts or sponsorship deals affecting First Division clubs to be negotiated by RFU without involvement of EFDRn reschedule Five Nations’ Championship putting it back to end of seasonn European League to follow domestic competitionn only one contract per player, between club and playern standardised form of contract, along the lines of football/rugby leaguen no limits on payments or term of contractsn compensation for club when a player of theirs is incapacitated while on international dutyn current registration period will be deemed a restraint of traden limit on number of non-EEC players per teamn regulatory body for transfersn fixed scale of fees according to standard of playern transfer deadlinen limit of transfer activity involving top grade players. He said: “We want the competition structure in which the clubs are taking part to be run professionally and we want full involvement in that.”n The former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings last night accused the Scottish of wanting their players “on the cheap”. “Martin has been put under quite considerable pressure with the persistence of Quins,” McGeechan said. “It’s a lottery at the moment with no contracts being allowed.”Wheeler does not expect to find the EFDR in full agreement with the RFU commission but he hopes Twickenham will have considered carefully the proposals in the clubs’ report. The Northampton coach, Ian McGeechan, revealed yesterday that Quins, who have just had a pounds 50,000 offer to England lock Martin Bayfield turned down by the player, have not given up. When it comes to player contracts, which they want to be between club and player rather than country and player, they have studied examples from rugby league, cricket and football.Clubs are already considering signing up their players to keep them out of the clutches of predatory clubs such as Newcastle and more recently Harlequins.