On The Sidelines

Those of you who saw the recent fly-on-Mick-McCarthy'swall job on RTE can make up their own minds, but around here we don't reckon that the Irish manager would take too kindly if he was to suffer the same fate endured by his Croatian counterpart Miroslav Blazevic.

Like Mick, Miroslav isn't too taken with journalists, and in a very Mick-like moment, he recently issued a challenge to his media corps; they could pick a team to play his, then it would be seen who knew their stuff and who didn't.

Well, this week the team picked by the reporters beat the first team 3-1, and, according to reports of the game, looked the better side throughout (but then, they would say that, wouldn't they).

Relations between the national coach and the media are hardly likely to be improved by the event and if the Croatians fail to impress in their group at France '98, things could rapidly turn ugly as the nation's football hacks start making suggestions for tactical alterations and changes in personnel.

In Mexico City for tonight's world title fight between Julio Cesar Chavez and Miguel Angel Gonazalez, Don King was in upbeat form this week despite having just been robbed at gunpoint of his expensive Rolex watch.

"Had they known I was Don King," he beamed, "I'm confident they never would have stopped me." It's entirely possible that the convicted killer had a point.

Asked if it was true that the watch, which was said to be encrusted with diamonds, had cost $100,000, he replied that it was just "a shiny doodad . . . a gaudy little thing that sparkles; nothing of significance".

It would be interesting to discover whether that's the way he describes it when he deducts its cost from the purse of one of the fighters. Rest assured, if word reaches us, it'll reach you.

While in Mexico, Don King took time out to present himself as a champion of women's rights in the wake of the news that a women's boxing match had been banned there due to a piece of legislation passed back in the 1940s.

"All around the world women are known as equals now," said King, who went on to assert their rights to be "boxers, doctors, movie stars, dancing girls, teachers, mothers, whatever . . . "

It seems that the man who has gotten used to getting things the way he wants them in the boxing world may be disappointed on this occasion, however, with Mexico City boxing commissioner Victor Lopez adamant that he is bound by the city's 50-year-old law that prohibits contests between women.

Local woman Laura Serrano, who was one of the four women scheduled to fight on this evening's bill, has vowed to challenge the ruling in the courts.

A Romanian footballer has been sold by his club for 500 kilos of pork, estimated to cost $2,500 at the local butcher's.

Second division Jiul Petrosani intend to sell the meat they got from third division Valcea for midfielder Ion Radu to pay off unpaid player wages. The purchasing club, clearly smitten with the success of their first venture into the world of bartering for players, have also traded 10 footballs for Petrosani's, er, highly-rated, defender Liviu Baicea.

It's that time of the year when we are obliged to offer our congratulations to the FIA on the utterly absurd viewing figures achieved by Formula One over the past year.

According to the sport's organisers, the races last season were watched by a total of 5,413,890,021 people, up a modest 60 million on the 1996 figure.

Qualifying sessions attracted some 1.2 billion viewers, while news coverage which included reports on the sport drew a combined audience of 39,926,580,093. If that sounds far-fetched, remember this is the organisation which says cigarette companies are giving the sport around £100 million without looking to start anybody on the habit.

Having dealt rather harshly with some of his own coaches and players over the years, when they didn't meet the required standards, a senior Saudi football official has shown considerable generosity to members of the Egyptian panel which last weekend lifted the African Nations' title.

The team and coach have received $300,000 from the head of the Arab football federation for winning last Saturday's final against South Africa, with Saudi Prince Faisal ibn-Fahd giving around $300,000, to be shared amongst them, as a reward for their efforts in Burkino Faso.

The Cairo press said Mahmud al-Gohari, coach of the Pharaohs, would receive $20,000, while each player would receive half that amount.

Gohari and the players received a triumphant homecoming Sunday, with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak leading more than 30,000 fans to Cairo airport to greet the team.

Many russians who won medals at the Nagano Olympics were rewarded with military promotions during the week, it was announced by the CSKA army club.

Spokesman Vladimir Mamchur said those receiving promotions included three-times gold medallist in cross-country skiing, Larisa Lazutina, who moved up to lieutenant from non-commissioned officer.

Yelena Vyalbe, who won a cross-country gold medal and took five world championship golds last year, was promoted from captain to major. Galina Kukleva, a biathlon gold medallist in Nagano, was made a lieutenant.

A spokesman for Uneximbank, one of Russia's largest banks and CSKA's main financial backer, said the army medallists were also paid $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 respectively for gold, silver and bronze medals.

In addition to all of that, many of the winners were presented with awards by president Yeltsin, with Lazutina receiving the golden star of Hero of the Russian Federation, the highest distinction in post-Soviet Russia.

Having had to endure a year of controversy because their downhill ski run for the winter Olympics was situated close to a national park, the winter paralympics, which got under way in Nagano this week, attracted some unwelcome publicity for much the same reason.

It was the area's wildlife which was this time the cause of the trouble, with one competitor - 24-year-old Kiwi Mathew Butson - forced to fend off a wild monkey with the help of artificial arm.

"I was just watching television in my fourth-floor hotel room when the monkey leapt in, baring its teeth and snarling at me," Butson was quoted as saying.

The skier, an arm amputee, said he picked up his metallic artificial arm and brandished it at the large intruder which immediately fled from the hotel room in Shiga Kogen, about 34 miles from Nagano.

"It was quite scary," said Butson, who is from Invercargill in New Zealand. "They are not small. This one was about four feet high when it stood up. I thought it was going to attack."

Please send any correspondence to On The Sidelines, Sports Dept, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail emalone@irish-times.ie