We have contingency plans he said

“We have contingency plans,” he said.The FA has yet to decide on a bid for the 2006 World Cup, but officials are keen after the success of Euro 96; and the Government has voiced support. Wednesday night’s violence is thought unlikely to affect any bid.Organisers of the Manchester bid privately hope that the decision to award the Millennium showcase events to Greenwich over Birmingham will encourage administrators to look outside the capital for another large- scale lottery project.Spokesman Graham Stringer said their pounds 125m scheme for east Manchester was at a more advanced stage of planning and, unlike the Wembley bid, did not involve lottery money benefiting a private company.. We believe that we have everything necessary to attract such an event.”However, he denied that the long-term future of Wembley was in doubt if Manchester won the national stadium contest, saying. Yesterday, the owners of Wembley claimed that becoming the national stadium could be an important part of the English strategy to stage the World Cup in 10 years’ time, as well as the 2008 or 2012 Olympics.Alan Coppin, chief executive of Wembley plc, said: “We will try to convince (the Football Association) that a local bid should be made for 2006. MICHAEL STREETER and JONATHAN GLANCEY

A pounds 160m scheme to build a new 83,000-seat Wembley stadium could spearhead a British bid for the World Cup in 2006, its backers claimed yesterday.
The futuristic plans, drawn up by leading architect Sir Norman Foster, will be seen by many as a haven for a new breed of “couch potatoes”, with many seats having armrests, instant video replays on individual television screens and a push-button facility to order food.His “visionary” plan – published the day after England’s penalty shoot- out defeat by Germany – also involves removing the famous 2,000-ton twin towers from the stadium to make a separate feature, and realigning the pitch to run north/south.Sir Norman said the stadium, which would be built in under two years, missing just one FA Cup final – in 1999 – could boast “the best facilities in the world”.The key question, however, is whether the project will be adopted by the Sports Council as the new English National Stadium and attract the pounds 100m lottery money that goes with it.The decision, due in October, is a straight fight between London and Manchester.

Others were gleefully unsentimental, such as the offering from C Coverdale, of London SW19:Oh piggy, piggy.growing fat, made into spam,now feeding my cat!or simply exhibitionist, like this one in Latin by PJ Brace, of London E3:Puero panis frustaAuferrebant a me spemCur? – Inerat spam!Most common were mere “celebrations of spam”:oh oh oh oh ohEach syllable as preciousas a slice of spam.(Malcolm Bell, London SW16);Love – you can keep it.I have to have pork in me.Spam! Open a tin.(Bobby Mill, Basildon, Essex);Delicate batter,Soft pink inside, golden fried:Fragrant spam fritter.(James Gray, by e-mail).So what about the victors?Runner-up would have been Adrian Mitchell, who, among a gaggle of offerings came up with the best nostalgia-driven version:Spam goes on and on.Who but me remembers Spam’swartime rival, Prem?But we had to disqualify him on Olympic amateur rules, so the second prize goes to Timothy Robey, of Ainsdale, Southport, Merseyside, for poignancy:Feeding butterflyTransforms gelatinous spamTo undreamed beauty.And the winner, for wit, elegance and sheer poetic poise, is Neil Vesma, Newent, Gloucestershire:So that pigs might flyI throw my spam at the sunPink arc through blue airHow will they ever live it down?. Everyone, apart from the surprisingly large number of vegetarians who entered, wanted second prize.The favourite theme was war-time recollection;A tin hacked openSoft meat thrust in anxious mouthsDawn of D-daywrote Geoffrey Williams, of Faringdon, Oxfordshire, supplemented by Christopher Pelly, of Poole, Dorset:Remembered war fare:Diced spam on willowed china- I salivate now.and John Hougham, of Gravesend, Kent:Succulent pinknessrecalls my war-time breakfasts.Where’s the powdered egg?A number were more topical, along the lines of:Though rubbery pinkSpam is free of BSE:Safe to eat, I think.by John Meehan, of Brentwood, Essex, or reflective:PhilosophicalLuncheon meat may say, “I’m pinkTherefore I am spam.”by Janet McKnight, of Loughborough, in Leicestershire. Bizarre, we freely admit – but it seemed somehow to capture the imagination of Independent readers, provoking little oriental gems from all quarters of the kingdom, ranging across the aesthetic spectrum, from tacky to downright sticky.
We offered a prize of a week’s pork luncheon meat to the winner, and a year’s supply to the runner-up. Remember Spamku? A couple of weeks ago we reported a new fad in Japan, for writing haiku on the theme of Spam. The reading of a WH Auden poem in Four Weddings and a Funeral has boosted sales of Auden’s works.

Auden’s “Tell me the Truth About Love” sells as many as 100,000 units a year. Equally the success of the musical Cats has boosted TS Eliot’s sales.Most publishers report sales of 2,000-20,000 copies of poetry texts a year. Present day poets selling well include: Fleur Adcock, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Michael Rosen and Elizabeth Jennings.Humorous poetry and performance poetry are selling particularly well at present.. Poetry promoters, however, were keen.”The report notes that the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines poetry as “the expression of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination, or feeling, in appropriate language, such language containing a rhythmical element and having usually a metrical form.”The report adds: “As we move towards the end of this millennium, song lyrics, rap, greeting card verses, limericks and several other linguistic variation lay claim to the genre.”t A Poetry Survey for the Arts Council of England; 14 Great Peter Street, London, SW1.How movies help salesA popular movie can sell a lot of poems. This focus served to compound the image of poetry as something of the past rather than a living, vibrant art form. Concern was also expressed by English teachers about the training they received in poetry.”Poets, meanwhile, are becoming concerned about having to act as media figures and give public readings for marketing purposes.