THE SWEDISH international Jesper Mattsson yesterday completed his pounds 300000 switch to Nottingham Forest – and insisted he was not worried

THE SWEDISH international Jesper Mattsson yesterday completed his pounds 300,000 switch to Nottingham Forest – and insisted he was not worried about the club’s struggle against relegation. It really hurts me.”Another ex-Australian captain, Richie Benaud, said he was appalled by the actions of the ACB. He called for two-year bans for Warne and Waugh and said: “I never ever thought I would see an Australian cricketer slump to these depths. This isn’t going to affect us at all – we’ve come here to win a Test and square the series and we will prepare in exactly the same way as we have done before.”The former Australia captain Neil Harvey saw little humour in the situation and was not prepared to be so forgiving. Some things are public and some things are private.”And, responding to a claim in an Australian newspaper that similar things happened in every dressing-room, he stressed: “I have played 80-odd Test matches for England and I’ve never seen anything like that.”As the news conference to discuss England’s thinking ahead of the third Test at Adelaide on Friday became increasingly dominated by the events, Stewart joked: “I’ve just offered Shane Warne two beers if he will tell me about the wicket here. Their actions brought them pounds 7,200 in fines from the ACB at the time but the issue only came to the surface late on Tuesday night.
Now the revelations could have a serious effect on the future of both cricketers with some experts calling for them to be banned while others have been highly critical of the ACB.Yet Stewart, preparing for the start of the third Ashes test in Adelaide tomorrow, said: “They [the ACB] are not going to publish everything that happens.

The Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne and middle-order batsman Mark Waugh yesterday admitted being paid by an Indian bookmaker for giving him details of pitch and weather conditions during the 1994 tour to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. THE ENGLAND captain, Alec Stewart, last night stepped into the betting affair that has shocked his sport and defended the Australian Cricket Board’s decision to keep the matter secret for the last three years. They have some real quality players up there and they should be doing better than they are.”. Celtic must pay and they said they will.”Meanwhile, the Scotland striker Ally McCoist last night accused Aberdeen’s under-achievers of failing their former manager, after Alex Miller became the latest man to vacate the Pittodrie job.The Kilmarnock player laid the blame for Miller’s demise firmly at the feet of the Aberdeen players, after learning that Craig Brown’s Scotland No 2 was on his way out of the door after barely a year in the job.McCoist and his team-mates helped seal Miller’s fate on Saturday by humbling woeful Aberdeen 4-0 at Rugby Park.”It was a poor performance on Saturday and they haven’t been playing very well at all lately,” said McCoist.”But the players have got to take a good look at themselves because they have really underachieved for the last few years. The player and his representatives have been very co-operative and we appreciate his difficult position.”Whether that involves the full transfer of Viduka’s fee at the present time remains unclear, although a Zagreb spokesman, Goran Bradic, earlier confirmed that his club are expecting an instalment in the next few days.”We are expecting payment from Celtic at the end of this week,” he said “We were never worried because the law is on our side. “We are hopeful that with their understanding and co-operation, the matter can be resolved effectively and amicably.”We also hope that the assistance and advice of the football bodies, principally Fifa, will be available to deal with this situation fairly, as necessary. I want to make it absolutely clear that as far as I am concerned this is not about money.

My only concern is getting back to total fitness and honouring my commitments. I hope people realise that I have been honest and up front, I am not the sort of guy to try and hide my feelings.”McCann, who flew to Zagreb yesterday in an attempt to rescue his investment in Viduka, declared himself satisfied with the agreement reached over the player in his present state of unfitness.”The Zagreb officials recognised that the purpose of the transfer – for Celtic to obtain the player, ready, willing and able to play – had not been achieved,” he said. All I want right now is to be left alone to recover from the stress of my last few months in Zagreb.”I want to play football again soon, and when I am ready, I want it to be for Celtic. The 23-year-old Australian headed home to his family in Melbourne yesterday after discussions with the Parkhead managing director Fergus McCann, his advisors IMG and his former club Croatia Zagreb.
Viduka is not expected to return to Scotland until the new year after fleeing to Zagreb on Sunday, complaining of depression just five days after joining the reigning champions.The complicated payment of his pounds 3m transfer fee – understood to include a substantial figure to the player – appears to remain unresolved, with McCann asking for Fifa assistance in the matter.McCann and Eric Riley, Celtic’s financial director, are believed to favour an agreement that withholds the payment due to Viduka pending his return, while Zagreb are expecting their instalment by the end of the week.In a joint statement by the player and McCann last night, Viduka pleaded for sympathy for his plight and vehemently denied his actions were linked in any way to the alleged financial shortfall to him.”Of course I regret that my intention to play for Celtic has not yet been fulfilled,” he said “I do appreciate the club’s understanding.

Substitutes not used: Scheuer (gk), Helmer, Tarnat.Referee: D Jol (Netherlands).Richard Williams, page 30. CELTIC’S RUNAWAY striker Marko Viduka last night begged to be left alone to get on with his recuperation from stress, after confirming his intention to restart his aborted career in Glasgow. Substitutes not used: Van der Gouw (gk), Sheringham, P Neville, Blomqvist, Berg.Bayern Munich (4-3-3): Kahn; Strunz, Babbel, Kuffour, Lizarazu; Effenberg, Matthaus (Linke, 62), Jeremies; Zickler (Jancker, 81) Elber (Basler, 81), Salihamidzic. Their detractors will call United the double runners-up since they only qualified for the competition by coming second in the Premiership, but United will feel they did enough to deserve to go through.Manchester United (4-4-2): Schmeichel; Brown, G Neville, Stam, Irwin (Johnsen, h-t); Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs; Cole, Yorke (Butt, 65). Their actions brought them pounds 7,200 in fines from the ACB at the time but the issue only came to the surface late on Tuesday night.
Now the revelations could have a serious effect on the future of the world’s leading leg spinner and the prolific middle-order batsman with demands for them to be banned. Other experts have been highly critical of the ACB.Yet Stewart, preparing for the start of the third Ashes Test in Adelaide tomorrow, said: “They [the ACB] are not going to publish everything that happens.

Some things are public and some things are private.” And, responding to a claim in an Australian newspaper that similar things happened in every dressing-room, he stressed: “I have played 80-odd Test matches for England and I’ve never seen anything like that.”Neil Harvey, the former Australia captain, called for two-year bans for the pair and said: “I never ever thought I would see an Australian cricketer slump to these depths. It really hurts me.”Another ex-Australia captain, Richie Benaud, said: “One of the most appalling things is that it’s been covered up for so long.”The former Australian captain, Kim Hughes, has insisted Warne’s involvement in the matter will damage his chances of ever captaining his country. “It is different to match-fixing but it’s still a shock,” he said. “Two blokes who have got tremendous records are now tarnished It’s very disappointing for the game.”. Bayern Munich (Ger)

Dynamo Kiev (Ukr)
Internazionale (It)Juventus (It)Kaiserslautern (Ger)Manchester United (Eng)Olympiakos Piraeus (Gr)Real Madrid (Sp)Quarter-final draw: Wednesday 16 December. MANCHESTER UNITED’S manager, Alex Ferguson, revealed that his German opponents kept him informed of other results last night so that he knew a draw would be good enough to see his side through to the European Cup quarter-finals. United qualify as one of the two best runners-up while Bayern also progressed as Group D winners after the 1-1 draw.
Ferguson said: “I knew we were OK with 10 minutes to go because the Germans are never wrong with these things.