It doesn’t matter at all whether we play at home or away in the first leg We’re just as strong away as at

“It doesn’t matter at all whether we play at home or away in the first leg We’re just as strong away as at home Our 1-0 win at Auxerre proved that. We’re not afraid of English football.”Waiting for the winners in Munich on 28 May will be either Juventus, the holders, or Ajax, whose semi-final pairing is a repeat of last year’s final.Monaco, who had little trouble sending Newcastle United packing from the Uefa Cup, have been drawn aginst Internazionale, while Tenerife face Germany’s Schalke 04 in the other semi-final.n Manchester United and Liverpool are to be given a TV breather. In order to ease the clubs’ heavy programme, Sky will televise United’s Premiership game at Leicester City (kick-off 11.15am) and Liverpool’s home match with Spurs (6.15pm) on 3 May instead of exercising their option to switch the games to Sunday or Monday.Fowler’s show of solidarity, page 3. Glenn Hoddle’s inclusion of Matt Le Tissier in his England squad for next week’s friendly against Mexico was always likely to provoke controversy but the campaign for the Channel Islander’s international career to be on hold, perhaps permanently, acquired an unlikely cheerleader yesterday. Graeme Souness, Le Tissier’s manager at Southampton, thinks the midfielder should not be called up, but his concern is over fitness and not ability.
The England coach told a news conference yesterday that Le Tissier had confirmed his fitness to play, but Souness had said after Wednesday’s defeat at Chelsea that Le Tissier was not able to play 90 minutes because of foot and groin problem.Souness said on Radio 5 Live: “I spoke to the player yesterday after he received the call from Glenn Hoddle. He was going to tell Glenn that he didn’t feel he could do himself justice because of the injury.

But Glenn Hoddle has insisted on putting out a story totally different to the one Matt told me.”Le Tissier himself had said after the Chelsea game that he wanted to play for England. At his news conference Hoddle said: “I’ve spoken to Matt and he assures me he could’ve played at Chelsea. He said that the injury has been no different to how it’s been for the last six or seven games. We’ll chat when we get together.”Whatever reasons for Graeme not playing him aren’t for me to comment If Graeme wants to speak he can alert me to the situation We weren’t alerted so we’ve selected him. The fact that he played on Saturday and came off the bench at Chelsea doesn’t suggest the player was injured.”Hoddle has already made clear that every player selected for the Mexico game will be ordered to attend the squad’s Buckinghamshire hotel so that the England medical team can check their fitness. That is to prevent fit players being withdrawn by their clubs, with Hoddle pointing out: “If they can play for their clubs and not for us, that would be unfair.”Hoddle took pains to indicate he did not believe such a thought would cross the minds of managers. He said: “A lot of them were international players and would not have been happy if it had happened to them.”Tony Yeboah’s future at Leeds looks even more uncertain after he pulled out of their squad.

The striker, who last week threw his shirt at the Leeds bench after being substituted at Tottenham, declared himself unfit with a hamstring problem for the visit to Sheffield Wednesday.However, the Leeds’ manager, George Graham, said the club’s medical staff could not find anything wrong with the Ghanaian.Sheffield United are poised to sign Carl Tiler, the Aston Villa defender, after the clubs agreed an undisclosed fee, while Uwe Rosler’s days at Manchester City could be over. He may be swapped for the Sunderland striker, Craig Russell, before next Thursday’s transfer deadline.A Middlesbrough supporter yesterday described how she stood for 15-and- a-half hours to secure tickets for the Coca-Cola Cup final against Leicester City.Barbara Griffin’s ordeal began when she arrived at the club’s Riverside stadium at 6am on Thursday to find 3,500 Boro fans already waiting for the ticket office to open at 9.30.The snail pace progress was exacerbated by the 10-abreast queue having to funnel into a narrow passage between a wall and a builder’s skip. “For the last three hours I couldn’t scratch my nose,” Griffin, a Boro supporter for 30 years and a season ticket holder, said. “Having one office open for a major cup final was a disgrace The crush and the wait were horrendous No one came out of the club to apologise They just don’t care.”Newcastle flotation success, page 24. Campaigners defending the athletics facilities at Crystal Palace hailed a major victory yesterday after reports that the threat of imminent demolition had been removed and a pledge made to install a new pounds 3.5m indoor training centre at the site.

But the picture was thrown into confusion last night when the Sports Council issued a statement saying that no decisions over the future use of Crystal Palace had yet been taken “Athletics is still an option,” a spokesman said. “But the whole business will be considered at a further meeting involving Bromley Borough Council on 12 May.”
A delegation representing the campaigners, led by the Labour MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, met the Sports Council’s executive director, Derek Casey, in London on Thursday and were given assurances that the facility would remain at Crystal Palace, but have its spectator capacity reduced to allow the indoor facilities to be built. “I am pleased that the English Sports Council is now committed to supporting athletics at Crystal Palace,” Hoey said.Bromley Council announced yesterday that they would be including athletics in their plans for the future at Crystal Palace.Bromley’s original idea had been to increase the facilities at the Norman Park site within their borough and to demolish the Crystal Palace running track and indoor facility to make way for a walkway reproducing the layout for the original site of the Crystal Palace in the 1850s.The council, which is due to take over the Crystal Palace lease from the Sports Council, had previously announced its intention to save pounds 1m by demolishing the National Stadium’s main stand, track and indoor training area.The storm of protest has this week succeeded in winning support from the sports minister, Iain Sproat, who responded to a widespread lobbying campaign and pledged his support for the athletics facilities, saying that it was his intention that the facilities continued to be provided until better ones were on offer elsewhere.Campaigners, who had presented a 12,500-signature petition at the House of Commons on Tuesday reacted with delight at the prospect of athletics at Crystal Palace being saved.”It is great news for athletics in this country,” said Richard Simmons, the national sprint coach who has led the protests. “Some hard negotiations lie ahead but I hope that people will now be able to go forward together for the good of sport.”Simmons thanked the campaigners who had helped to bring the matter to prominence in recent weeks. They included the former Olympic athletes Steve Ovett and Dave Bedford and current athletes such as Donna Fraser and Judy Oakes.Sally Gunnell, the former world and Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion and current British team captain, added: “I am absolutely delighted.”Right from the age of 12 when my dad used to drive me all the way from our farm in Chigwell to train there I knew there was nowhere else like the Palace.

It’s vital for all the athletes in London and the south that it will continue to keep going. It’s especially good news for the future generations of athletes and that is why I have backed the campaign 100 per cent.”. Drizzle and cloud hung over the Rugby World Cup Sevens yesterday but failed to dampen spirits as the last sevens tournament to be staged in Hong Kong under British rule began. The first day’s matches were, in essence, warm-up matches with no one knocked out but the results and number of tries scored deciding the seeding for today’s second round.
Wales were the main hard luck story of the first day, drawing 12-12 with Namibia and then losing 26-24 to Western Samoa despite leading with less than a minute to go. That left them ranked 16 of the 24 teams, below the likes of Zimbabwe, Tonga and the Cook Islands.Ravaged by injuries, they seemed set for victory against Samoa thanks to a try with 45 seconds remaining by Gareth Wyatt but they were penalised for the kick-off not going 10 yards, and then allowed Semo Sititi to break through three tired challenges for the decisive score.Wales now face the top seeds Fiji, seven time Hong Kong winners, in the early hours of this morning.