Sports Digest

A roundup of today's other sports news in brief . . .

SOCCER:Many reforms on the agenda Ireland guaranteed top-eight place  Riverside racist chanting leads to two arrests McCarthy rewarded Pietersen in confident mood

The Football Association have vowed to "take the strongest possible action" against anyone found guilty of Islamophobic or racist chanting against Middlesbrough striker Mido.

The Egyptian striker was targeted by Newcastle fans as he warmed up in the Tees-Tyne derby at the Riverside Stadium last weekend, and has called on the game's governing body to take stern measures.

Mido suffered similar abuse during Newcastle's last visit to Boro a year ago, but an FA investigation then did not result in any banning orders due to difficulties in identifying culprits.

However, two men, aged 49 and 23, have been arrested and will appear before Teesside Magistrates Court on December 9th charged with racial chanting.

A Middlesbrough spokesman said: "Middlesbrough FC has a very strong anti-racism stance. Middlesbrough police have confirmed that two individuals were arrested at the game for racial chanting and have been given a court date."

CRICKET:England captain Kevin Pietersen said yesterday he was confident his team would travel to India for next week's first Test in Chennai despite the recent atrocities in the country.

England's squad departed for Abu Dhabi yesterday to practise while England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) security experts evaluate the situation in Chennai where the first Test is scheduled to start next Thursday.

"We've bought ourselves some more time in Abu Dhabi," said Pietersen at Heathrow airport. "It's very important that we go back, shoulder to shoulder with the Indian people in their time of need.

"We will assess the situation on Sunday but I'm very confident that we will go to play a Test match next week in Chennai.

However, Pietersen said the players would not make a final decision until they had received all the latest reports from the ECB's security manager Reg Dickason and Sean Morris, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers Association.

SQUASH:Ireland are guaranteed a place in the top eight at the Women's World Team Squash Championship, in Cairo, Egypt, despite losing 3-0 to England in yesterday's quarter-finals.

Tanya Owen was first up for the Irish team, and was dismissed easily by Laura Lengthorn-Massaro 11-3, 11-4, 11-5.

Against her occasional training partner, Jenny Metcalf, the Irish number one Madeline Perry started well, taking the first game 11-9, and only losing by a crucial few points in the third and fourth game going down 11-5, 11-9, 12-10.

Last to play was Aisling Blake, who went out to Alison Waters in a best of three match 11-6, 11-4.

ROWING:This is a busy weekend in Irish rowing - albeit off the water, writes Liam Gorman.

The incoming performance director, Martin McElroy, is set to meet the board of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union this Sunday; there is a protest against the proposed revamp of the weir in Fermoy tomorrow; biggest of all, club representatives meet in Garda Boat Club tomorrow to vote on rule change proposals which will go forward to the extraordinary general meeting of the union in January.

The huge document they will parse goes, virtually line by line, through the rules of the sport here and suggests reforms. Delegates would be well advised to go first to the helpful section at the end on the review of the rowing grading system.

Proposed changes would: drop the coxed four as a Championship event; bar a junior from competing for more than one club in a season; remove junior composites from competition through the season; introduce a two-level intermediate grade.

There are "housekeeping" measures on the position of the chief executive and the use of electronic media.

SOCCER:Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has been named as the English League Championship manager of the month for November.

McCarthy's league leaders won five and drew one of their six matches last month and McCarthy admitted the run "has been great" and used last weekend's draw with Birmingham to highlight the recent success of his league leaders. "We've been behind in games this season and got something out of them," he said.