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Compiled by PHILIP REID

Rice faces race to get right for Olympics

IS THERE finally light at the end of the tunnel for Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice?

The swimmer has had a tough old time of late, both in and out of the pool.

She broke up with Australian rugby star Quade Cooper and then underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn tendon in her right shoulder.

Rice is due to return to competition at next week’s New South Wales swim meet as she bids to make up lost time on her preparations for the London Games.

Having undergone a strenuous weights programme to help her regain fitness since the surgery, Rice now faces a daunting race against time to retain her race sharpness.

Fair play stops spending going out the window

TRY AS Sky Sports might to make a big deal of the final day’s transfer shenanigans, there was a flat feel to the whole thing. Since then, the reprehensible and disturbing scenes in Egypt have put a chillingly different perspective on the so-called beautiful game . . . . and, in some ways, the transfer merry-go-round, as crazy and mad as it can be, seems indisputably sane when compared to the loss of lives in a sporting arena.

Still, compared to a year ago when Liverpool and Chelsea cut loose in a final day frenzy that saw Andy Carroll move to Anfield and Fernando Torres to Stamford Bridge, this January’s transfer dealings were of the church mice variety. Quieter, even.

Interestingly, business advisory firm Deloitte were quick off the mark to let us know the transfer spend this January compared to a year ago represented a drop of 70 per cent – down from the record level of €270 million in 2011 to a mere €72 million this time – which is either a sign of more austere times, even in the fish bowl that is the English Premier League, or else indicates a reluctance to replicate the madness of the previous year.

It is worth recapping on Messrs Carroll and Torres, for their transfers – Carroll’s €42 million from Newcastle to Liverpool and Torres’s €60 million from Liverpool to Chelsea – represent probably the worst value that any clubs have ever got since the January transfer window was first introduced in 2002-03.

Carroll has failed to live up to his big-money move, his goal the other night against Wolves being just his seventh, and first since October, as he struggles to pin down a permanent place in attack. Luis Suarez’s imminent return should put his bum back on the bench.

As for Torres? The Spanish international was close to a God-like figure for those who trooped on to The Kop for home games at Anfield (scoring 76 times in 135 matches). He has been but a pale imitation since his move to Stamford Bridge, scoring just three times in 32 Premier League games and five times in all when the Champions League is included.

If the IMF or the troika were on his case, he’d be in trouble. As it is, the under-achieving Torres is on a weekly salary of €240,000 plus whatever bonuses he manages to accrue.

For sure, it would seem transfer purchases in January tend to reap less dividends than those hammered out pre-season. There seemed, in the past, to be a manic frenzy come January as clubs desperately sought new blood to aid their bids for deliverance.

As Torres and Carroll show – and, indeed others: the likes of Alfonso Alves comes to mind – those desperation purchases can very easily go wrong.

The view of Deloitte is worth noting, with Dan Jones – a partner in the company’s sports business group – making the point that this year’s transfer outlay in January was back to the levels spent in the period 2004-07.

He attributed one of the reasons to the fact that clubs “are now in the reporting period that will count towards the first assessment for Uefa’s financial fair play break-even requirement, their comparative restraint is indicative of an overriding reflection on spending levels. The focus on football’s future financial sustainability is more prevalent in Europe than at any time in the past 20 years and, going forward, we remain keen to see than translated into a better balance between revenue and expenditure.”

Some of the key findings in the Deloitte analysis included: of the €72 million spent in the January window, some €36 million of that took place on the final day, while there were no single player acquisitions for more than €18 million (there were six such transactions in January 2011).

What is also notable from the analysis is that, over the 10 years the transfer window has operated, English Premier League clubs’ spending has typically exceeded that in other European leagues.

Last month, the top division clubs in each of France, Germany and Italy reportedly had total transfer fees of around 80 per cent of the level of the English clubs.

Swiss time protest to perfection

AS SPORTING protests go, the one the other night where the gentleman irate with his daughter’s treatment by Ryanair handcuffed himself to the goalposts during the Everton-Man City game was – at least – original and harmed nobody but himself. How must his daughter feel?

Anyway, sporting events – especially those live on TV – are more susceptible to protests than, say, a concert. And, unfortunately, two of the more infamous protests of recent years involved an Irishman, Neil Horan, who somehow avoided harm at the British Grand Prix in 2003 and, then, avoided a prison sentence after his audacious intrusion on the marathon at the Olympics in Athens in 2004.

Horan’s infraction at the Silverstone Grand Prix saw him run across the track – with cars whizzing by at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour – waving a religious banner which stated, ‘Read the Bible. The Bible is always right’. Several drivers had to swerve to avoid him and the race safety car had to be deployed. He subsequently pleaded guilty to aggravated trespass and was sentenced to two months in prison.

By the time the Olympic Games in Athens came around the following year, Horan was again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons when he pushed Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima at a time when he was leading the race. The athlete suffered leg cramps after the attack – in which he lost 20 seconds from a 48-second lead – and eventually finished third.

Apart from the bronze medal, de Lima was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal at the closing ceremony for his “exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values”.

Horan was given a 12-months suspended sentence by a Greek court after he apologised.

Probably the most ingenious – and harmless – protest of all, though, was that by Swiss soccer supporters at a match between Basle and Lucerne in 2010. It came after Swiss TV executives got the league match between the two rivals brought forward to facilitate their live screening of tennis star Roger Federer’s ATP Masters final.

Not amused by the change to the soccer match, supporters from both teams threw thousands of tennis balls on to the pitch just as the match was due to start. And, then, after a clean-up operation, the supporters launched a second wave of balls on to the pitch.

'Irish' Toms battle it out

ANYONE looking for some “Irish” involvement in tomorrow night’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants can take their pick . . . or perhaps flip a coin. Indeed, two of the central characters in this year’s decider are self-avowed Irish-Americans.

Tom Brady is the quarterback for the New England Patriots, while Tom Coughlin is the brains behind the New York Giants.

Coughlin – a grandfather of 10 – is a former Catholic seminarian from upstate New York who forsakes any glitz or glamour as he lets his team do the talking on the field.

He is quite a contrast to Brady, who is married to Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen and needs the limelight to sparkle.

Anyway. Time to flip a coin.

Semi-final format may take edge off leagues

HALLELUJAH FOR the start of the new Allianz Football Leagues, which get under way in fine style with the double-bill in Croker this evening, with the new rivalry of the Dubs and Kerry – no need to delve back in to the memory banks of the 1970s any longer – set to give an up-tempo start to it.

However, I can’t help feeling the decision to revert back to semi-finals is the wrong one.

With only eight teams in the top flight, no fewer than four will make it to the knockout stages, which might suit managers to some extent – in terms of blooding new players without an axe hanging over a team should they lose – but it makes you wonder about the incentives of garnering a winning culture. You could conceivably lose three matches and still qualify for the last four, which seems like an over-the-top reward.

Under the more recent system, teams – aware that five of the last nine Division One winners going on to win Sam – have gone hell for leather with the result that league matches have been of a greater intensity, despite the poorer pitch conditions, than in the old days. That has suited both spectators and teams but there is a danger that the decision to reintroduce semi-finals will take some of the edge off proceedings.

We’ll see how it goes, and there’d be an edge with Dublin-Kerry even if it was a tiddlywinks match. As for the league itself? Cork are favourites with the bookies . . . but Mayo, fourth favourites and generally available at 7 to 1, could be a good shout.