Prunier turns down United

FRENCH international William Prunier has turned down the chance to stay at Manchester United. The 28 year old defender, whose short term contract with United ends today after two first team outings, has decided to return to France after being offered another short term deal.

Alain Migliascio, Prunier's agent, said: "Manchester United were due to give us a definite answer, but they have offered William another trial period. With more than 350 French first division appearances and 35 European matches under his belt, he is no longer an apprentice."

United manager Alex Ferguson swooped for Prunier after injuries to regular centre backs Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce. The Frenchman, who quit Bordeaux last month, played in the 2-1 win over QPR and Monday night's 4-1 defeat at Tottenham.

However, Ferguson was not prepared to offer him a long term contract because he felt Prunier needed more time to become accustomed to United's style of play. "It has been very difficult for him to come straight into the English game when he doesn't speak the language," Ferguson added.

Despite the Prunier experience, United are set to go back into Europe to overcome the injury crisis that is threatening to inflict irreparable damage on their Premiership title ambitions.

Pallister and Bruce have been joined by defender David May full back Denis Irwin and goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel on the treatment table, and all are expected to be sidelined for at least the next three weeks.

While Pallister has been out of action with back trouble, United have lost three successive away games and dropped crucial home points by drawing with Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday.

It is too late to sign anyone in time for the weekend's FA Cup clash with Sunderland, but Ferguson seems certain to go abroad again in his search for experience.

"We have been looking around, but it is difficult to see anything in the English game, so we are looking in other places," he said.

Meanwhile, Tottenham's Premiership title odds were slashed yesterday from Ladbrokes' incredible 100 to 1 to a more realistic 25 to 1 - to the disappointment of Gerry Francis.

While the Spurs manager had kept his wallet in his pocket, joking that Monday's 4-1 demolition of Manchester United would probably push his undervalued and underrated side out further, striker Chris Armstrong sounded the championship charge.

Two more superbly taken goals finally banished any doubts about the wisdom of Spurs' £4.5 million investment in the Crystal Palace striker.

"Of course we're serious about going for it - our League position shows that," says Newcastle born Armstrong. "But we have to be realistic - Newcastle have to slip in a big way for anyone else to win it off them."

FIFA is ready to experiment with larger goals in 1996 in an attempt to make football more attractive. FIFA secretary general Sepp Blatter, in an interview in today's edition of the German magazine Stern, said the guardians of the game's rules the International Board - had backed the idea.

"The guardians of the Holy Grail have agreed to widen the posts by the diameter of two balls, roughly 50 centimetres, and to raise the crossbar by the diameter of one ball," Blatter said. "They will take the formal decision in March and we will arrange a trial after that."

The size of the goals (see diagram above), currently 7.32 metres by 2.44 metres, have been unchanged since 1874 and will remain so at least until the 1998 World Cup finals in France. Blatter said: "We will play the 1998 World Cup with the current rules. For 2002, we will have made other decisions about kick ins (instead of throw ins) and sudden death extra time (instead of penalty shoot outs)."

However, the prospect of larger goals has not pleased the German Football Federation (DFB). "We can't see any way of putting this into practice," said spokesman Wolfgang Niersbach. "We've got 100,000 football pitches in Germany alone. A goal costs 1,000 marks ($715) Who will pay?"