France is to honour its women supporters when they play at the Stade de France next month against Andorra in a Euro 2000 qualifier. A rose will be given to every woman who attends the match and female fans will pay a reduced price for a special 9,000-capacity women's only stand where they will be given other gifts by the team's sponsors. And all the ballboys will be, em, girls. This follows hot-on-the heals of Emmanuel Petit's recent comment that "women are ultimately all that matters in life. Everything that we do is for them. We seek riches, power and glory all in order to make them happy". Vive la France.

Crystal Palace were keen to put on a good show before yesterday's match against Sheffield United at Selhurst Park, to impress the estimated 100 million viewing audience for the game which was beamed live to China (home of Fan Zhiyi, who joined Palace during the summer). So, the RAF Falcons's parachute team was hired for the day to provide the pre-match entertainment, which was going swimmingly until one of the parachutists crash-landed on the pitch, broke his leg in two places and caused a delay to the start of the game. Word has it that Palace will hire a brass band for their next live match.

A major carrot controversy hit Brazilian football last week after Atletico Mineiro striker Edmilson whipped one (a carrot) from his shorts and ate it in front of America supporters, to celebrate his goal in the derby game. This, apparently, was a highly provocative gesture because America supporters are known as the "rabbits". "What most amazes me was the taste the carrot must have had - all sweaty and kept in his shorts," said a wretching Jose Roberto Wright, the former World Cup referee, when asked about the incident after the game. "Did I find it revolting to eat? Of course not. I don't find my own body revolting," said Edmilson, who kept the carrot in his shorts from the start of the game, until scoring (and eating it) in the 20th minute. . . hang on, what DID he mean by his "own body"?