On The Sidelines

Former racing commentator Peter O'Sullevan is backing a campaign to end the practice whereby horses are trucked up to 1,800 miles across Europe and slaughtered for meat. Many of those animals transported are broken down or old race horses.

Animal welfare campaigners say that the horses are being transported for up to 60 hours before being slaughtered in Italy and that some are even dead, from stress and exhaustion, before they arrive at their destination. The campaigners have made a film of the practice which O'Sullevan has narrated.

"Every man, woman and child who has respect for the horse will be forever haunted by the abhorrent traffic depicted in this new film which both dishonours the EU and the human race," says the veteran commentator. He may well have added Tyson getting into the ring and Bath scrumming down against London Scottish.

Still with racing, the court case involving the Ramsdens and Kieren Fallon against the Sporting Life has thrown up a little vignette about how horses are taught to jump. The report of the case, in which the Sporting Life is being sued for publishing accusations of cheating on the part of the Ramsdens and Fallon, goes thus:

"There was laughter in the court as MrGarrity described his troubles with the horse (Top Cees) when schooling him over hurdles. Twice he had been thrown off before attempting to make it jump an obstacle and had `squared it up' by kicking it in the belly and then administrating a slap with the whip. This he said was quite normal."

Wonder if Peter O'Sullevan knows?

European football associations, including the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), are to take joint action for the first time with leading European politicians in a move to combat racism in sport. No, they are not going to selectively terminate supporters' clubs around the continent, but will hold a major seminar in the European parliament over two days. This will involve over 200,000 schools and colleges. Former England player Garth Crooks will be a guest speaker at the event.

Rather that football providing the perfect forum for the expression of racism, the aim is to take a stand against it, as well as xenophobia and anti-semitism.

Soccer giving racism the boot. We will be better judges of its success after this year's World Cup and after the launch of new soccer book Derby Days which is out next month. Written by Dougie and Eddie Brimson, Derby Days, which comes out on March 12th, glorifies football hooliganism.

The Brimsons boast of "occasions where bottles, glasses, coins and ashtrays were flying. We were taking a good hiding or giving someone a savage kicking . . . and we loved it."

Headline publishers defend the book by saying that the brothers are reformed characters and have important points to make.

Norwegian Kjell-Inge Rokke recently coughed up £30 million to buy Wimbledon. But the millionaire can't bring himself to watch the matches if there is something more interesting going on in the world than the Premiership. Rather than supporting his club, Rokke is currently in Nagano watching the winter Olympics.

An exclusively homosexual rugby team is being formed in New Zealand to show "it's okay to be gay" in the macho New Zealand rugby world, an organiser said this week.

"We want to show that it's okay to play rugby and be gay - and that it's okay to be gay and play rugby," said Dean Knight, who is organising the team. "Some people in our (gay) community are uneasy about gay rugby players. They think we might be buying into the straight community's values. But we have a very diverse gay community. There are people who are into the macho-type rugby thing and I think we should provide for them, too."

Knight, who plays lock for a club side, has organised about a dozen players so far for his all gay team. He hopes to have enough players to face a heterosexual invitational 15 in April and is encouraging the formation of more all-gay teams in other cities.

"We won't be entering any competitions just yet. It's all about participation. We'll just go out and play hard, I guess."

Ross Rebaglaiti, the disgraced Canadian snowboarding gold medallist in Nagano, and President Bill Clinton have something in common. President Clinton got away with putting marijuana in his mouth but not inhaling. Rebaglaiti failed to get away with not putting any marijuana in his mouth but inhaling deeply. Now, who do you believe?

Fancy losing some money? Here's some betting on whether the Red Devils can remain hot or whether they'll burn in Hell. No trophy for United - 9/2. Exactly one trophy - 4/5. Two trophies - 2/1. All three trophies to Old Trafford i.e. FA Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup - 14/1.