• Newspaper claims fans' details were sold on to touts
• Investigation into 'rogue employee' of Match Hospitality

An investigation is under way into allegations that the passport details of thousands of football fans were sold on the black market by an official linked to Fifa.

The Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates the Data Protection Act, confirmed it has launched an inquiry into claims that the details of 35,689 English fans who attended the World Cup in Germany in 2006 may have been sold unlawfully for profit. Preliminary investigations by the authority suggest that the details of 7,200 England fans have been traded illegally.

Mick Gorrill, head of enforcement at the ICO, said the investigation was prompted by claims in a Norwegian newspaper last month that the details of 250,000 fans who watched games at the 2006 tournament had been sold to ticket touts ahead of this summer's tournament in South Africa.

Gorrill said: "We have contacted Fifa regarding the allegations and will be liaising with the organisation further as we move forward with an investigation. Our initial enquiries suggest that the number of individuals affected is approximately 7,200.

The authority is looking at claims that a "rogue employee" of Match Hospitality, Fifa's official ticketing agency, may have sold the information to black market touts who could then get in touch with individuals and offer to buy their tickets before they, in turn, illegally traded the same tickets at big mark-ups.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported it had gained possession of the list of 250,000 records, and said it had obtained several emails in which a Match employee offers the lists for sale to a major player on the black market. The newspaper claimed it has confirmed the seller's identity.

Jaime Byrom, chairman of Match Event Services and Match Hospitality's biggest shareholder, the Manchester-based Byrom plc, has told Dagbladet that it was not aware that the information had been sold and that it had taken every possible step to prevent the unauthorised sale of tickets. It is understood that an employee may have obtained the confidential lists without the knowledge of the firm.

The full list includes the personal details of a number of high-profile fans, including those of the former Swedish prime minister Ingvar Carlsson.

Match Hospitality, owned in part by a media company run by Philippe Blatter, nephew of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, won exclusive rights to sell ticket hospitality packages at the 2010 and 2014 tournaments three years ago. The firm was criticised for over-pricing packages for this summer's World Cup, resulting in empty seats at most matches in South Africa.

Younger players, free from fear, have flooded Fabio Capello's England with a wave of much-needed optimism

England could start against Switzerland on Tuesday night with one centre-half from Bolton Wanderers and another who clocks on for work at Everton, with the pair ably supported by a goalkeeper who was on loan at Birmingham City last season and whose first competitive start for his country sent a £500,000 bonus winging its way to Shrewsbury Town.

Champions League elitists will study the back of England's Euro 2012 qualifying side and think it a botch job of mid-table nearly men. Instead there is a freshness about the team who beat Bulgaria 4-0 on Friday night that Fabio Capello has found by accident. In a world without injuries, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry would still be in sinecures at centre-back, but instead Gary Cahill (Bolton) is likely to hook up with Phil Jagielka (Everton) in the aftermath of Michael Dawson's nasty knee injury at Wembley.

Cahill, an impressive athlete and quicker than most of Capello's more senior centre-backs, was selected on the bench ahead of West Ham's Matthew Upson, whose limitations were exposed in the 4-1 defeat to Germany in Bloemfontein. The mantra that an England international must be a Champions League regular will be tested in Switzerland. Jagielka earned high marks for his contribution against Bulgaria and Cahill, 24, exudes the optimism of a player who has not been soured by the boom and bust of the past eight years.

Hart's dazzling graduation to the No1 goalkeeping spot comes only after Capello messed up the succession by starting with Robert Green – the compromise candidate – in South Africa, and then falling back on David James when Robert turned out to be too green. Adversity has yet to assail his breezy temperament, but Hart, who left Shrewsbury for Manchester City four years ago, looks the best young English prospect in the nets for 30 years or more.

His keepy-uppy cameo against Bulgaria may be seen by some as pride before a fall, but others will think joie de vivre is just what England need as they try to escape the dead hand of the "golden generation" myth. "As soon as I did that I knew I'd be in trouble," he said. "I got lost in the moment. I wish I hadn't done it."

Ray Clemence, the England goalkeeping coach, says: "Joe is a young lad, he has come into the side, this is his third or fourth international, and in each one he has looked more and more comfortable as though to say: 'I can cope with this, I'll deal with it,' and he has done. When he was needed he pulled off three or four excellent saves which influenced the game and that is what top international keepers do.

"He's playing well and it's not just here but at Man City. I remember a performance against Tottenham, where he looked really difficult to beat for opposing forwards. I was at that game and he was a bit special. The game would have been well and truly over by half-time but for Joe. He is a smashing lad, you couldn't wish for a better lad to do well, and he is just as keen on the training ground as he is on the pitch."

England qualifying campaigns often start this way. A small or declining nation is smacked aside and hype's hurdy-gurdy starts up afresh before reality lands its hammer blow in round two or the quarter-finals of a tournament.

Immense pressure has been placed on Capello to discard a generation that has failed in England colours since the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. There will be no revolution, no purge; that much is already clear.

Jack Wilshere was sent back to the Under-21s, Jack Rodwell remains a hazy presence in Capello's mind and Tom Huddlestone was tried in pre‑World Cup friendlies and dumped. Adam Johnson, the best English winger – more tricky and more consistent in his delivery than Theo Walcott, who is also in fine form – looked out from the bench against Bulgaria as the England coach persisted with his wasteful habit of starting Steven Gerrard (nominally) on the left.

But slightly older players are pushing in from the margins. Jermain Defoe, who struck a hat-trick on Friday, is the best example. In the post-World Cup inquest Defoe was noticeably sanguine. Declining to come home in disguise, or self-lacerate to placate an angry gallery, Defoe instead spoke as one who saw an opportunity to advance his own claim in a more fluid time, and took that chance by exploiting three assists from Wayne Rooney, himself revitalised in the No10 playmaking position.

Cahill is a good bet to establish himself as Terry's main understudy and should see lots of action now that the battered former captain is more and more injury prone. As Cahill jogged on to replace the stricken Dawson he could smell his opportunity. "I was happy to be playing and extremely proud to represent my country, but when you come back in the changing room and see him [Dawson] injured on the bed it does take the shine off it a little bit," he said.

"I've been in and around the squad for eight games now just keeping my head down and waiting for a chance to come on and show what I can do. I was so hungry to get on there. From being a little lad you strive to play for your country. I think the opportunity is there because I've got maybe a bit of age on my side."

"Saying we're the next generation is a big shout," Hart said, sensing the way this thread was going. We find out for sure on that eternal burning ground of English hope: in tournaments.

A new emphasis on young multi-cultural talent is beginning to bear fruit for England's next opponents

With Italy, Germany, and France hugging their borders – aristocrats who have eight World Cup triumphs between them – it has always been a challenge for Switzerland to forge its own footballing personality.

Considering there are even three different names for the team itself, one for each of the readily used languages, it is not surprising that a sense of identity has been a little more relaxed than it is for their grander neighbours.

That all changed last November. Switzerland won their first title in world football, at any level, any age, any gender. Their Under-17 team stunned themselves as much as the traditional favourites when they conquered all. Their extraordinary achievement came not by fluke or miracle, but by playing high-quality, high-spirited football that proved better than that of Brazil, Germany and Nigeria – all opponents with real pedigree in youth football, all beaten by the young Swiss.

This group of determined teenagers was blown away at the end of it all. They arrived home to be swamped by fans at the airport, and the subject of a media welcome that billed them as headline news on live television. For a country in which football is not the undisputed king of sports, it was an important milestone.

For the decision makers and educators in the Swiss game, it was vindication of a radical approach that was put in place several years ago. As recently as 1998, Switzerland languished 83rd in the Fifa rankings, their lowest placing (they are currently a respectable 17th). Their football was muddling along without particular hope or direction. Coincidentally, that year saw France win the World Cup with a team that was famously multicultural and drew on players with roots from across Africa, the Caribbean, the Caucasus, and even the distant Pacific Islands. Inside the headquarters of the Swiss Football Federation, a large penny dropped.

They embarked upon a plan to upgrade player development. Around 20% of the seven million population are foreign or have ancestry from outside Switzerland, and they made a concerted effort to recruit the best available boys to play under their flag. A broader pool of talent has become, in many ways, their biggest asset. More than half of the triumphant Under-17 squad have immigrant backgrounds. Many of the boys have dual nationality and until they are given a full cap could just as easily choose to represent the country of their parents' birth.

Ottmar Hitzfeld, the coach of the senior team, is not going to hang around and will promote the prodigies as soon as is reasonable. In August he gave a debut to Nassim Ben Khalifa, the Under-17s' playmaker whose roots are Tunisian. He is an outstanding prospect and since the junior World Cup has been snapped up by Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.

Other players from the Under-17 squad have roots in Macedonia, Albania, Ghana, Congo, Portugal, Chile, Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia. The bond they feel under Switzerland's colours, and the experience they shared in growing into a successful team, has been profound. As the goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist explained: "It's hard to put it into words. It's simply the greatest thing I've ever experienced."

This is not the first generation to promise much. In 2002 the Swiss Under-17s won the European Championship with a team that included a handful of future full internationals in the shapes of Philippe Senderos, Tranquillo Barnetta and Reto Ziegler (Senderos has Spanish and Serbian roots, Barnetta has Italian, incidentally). Theirs was a good group, but there are even higher hopes for today's starlets.

"Something has happened," says the journalist Michael Martin. "The new generation are not just young players, but they can really make a difference when they play." It is, he feels, a consequence of a change of mindset. "It used to be school first, and then football. The mentality changed and the FA said we have to go for football first and take risks."

Where once parents of promising boys would insist on them having a safety net of a decent education, now they are encouraged to help their kids to make the best of their footwork – even if that means trying their luck abroad at a young age.

The exposure they had at the Under-17 showpiece has been a fantastic springboard. Haris Seferovic scored the winning goal in the final and has joined Fiorentina. Granit Xhaka has played in the Champions League, and within a couple of minutes of his debut he smashed in a goal from 30 yards. The highly rated goalkeeper Siegrist is with Aston Villa, and the defender Sead Hajrovic with Arsenal.

Compared to the vast funds thrown at acquiring and developing the hottest prospects in England, the Swiss FA invests £2.6m per year on youth development. It has increased the number of professional youth coaches from a handful to 80.

Dany Ryser, the coach of the Under‑17s, described their title as "the culmination of many years of hard work. Hopefully these youngsters will go on to make the senior team for [Brazil] 2014 and, who knows, maybe even reach similar heights then". Heady stuff, but understandable.

In the meantime, while they wait to see whether this crop turns out to be the rare vintage they are so hopeful for, the old master Hitzfeld gathers together his senior team to see if they can capitalise on England's vulnerable confidence in the aftermath of a torrid World Cup.

Switzerland had their own disappointments to chew over on their return from South Africa. While they relished the euphoria of a shock group-game victory over the eventual winners Spain, they rued the fact that they blew it afterwards. What a waste, to have the ingredients to embarrass Spain over 90 minutes and then not have the wherewithal to make the most of a wonderful opportunity to qualify for the knock-out stage.

The conveyor belt of talent is waiting in the wings to help Switzerland take the next step. How quickly Hitzfeld feels he can integrate them on to the big stage remains to be seen. For all but the most precocious, this is probably a qualification too soon.

A successful European qualifying campaign should go some way to protecting England's coach from machinations of the media

Gone is the smile and the enthusiastic response. The charm offensive and hoped-for fresh start of only a month ago is already a mere memory. Fabio Capello now answers questions and discusses the future with a testy indifference, sometimes asking questions of his own, such as how newspaper reporters can look at themselves in the shaving mirror in the morning, though perhaps this proud and successful coach is doing well to talk at all given that he has been portrayed in quick succession as a jackass and Frankenstein's monster.

The country is familiar with this routine, of course, even if the Italian is not. The more strident prints have decided it is time for Capello to go and, having made their decision, are doing their utmost to help bring it about. There is no obvious successor waiting in the wings, much less the English one the Football Association has said it would prefer – and, if there were, Aston Villa would probably just have appointed him. Capello's departure at this stage could only be costly and disruptive. Steven Gerrard has come out with the eminently reasonable observation that England would struggle to find a better qualified coach, yet a 4-0 victory in the opening game of a qualification cycle still has to be portrayed as a stroke of luck for a man who was otherwise facing the chop. If it is any comfort to Laurent Blanc, the new France coach who began his qualifying campaign by losing 1-0 at home to Belarus, a winning manager was being regarded with as much hostility and suspicion on the other side of the channel.

Cynics may say the red tops have decided that savaging the manager is going to be more fun this season than getting in any way excited about the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine in two years, and they may be right. It is also perfectly legitimate to suppose that, even if England qualify imperiously with a string of 4-0 wins, they will still stumble and fail in the tournament proper, because that is not only what happened last time, it is beginning to form a pattern of happening every time. But – and here's the point – that may not be the coach's fault. It seemed, to this observer at least, that while Capello was far from flawless at the World Cup the major failings were those of the players. They never demonstrated the same appetite, intelligence or energy levels as their counterparts from Holland or Germany, never mind Spain, and though Capello could have done a few things differently, he was never going to knock such an underpowered outfit into a team of world beaters.

Sven-Goran Eriksson could not do it either, Steve McClaren never even put himself in a position to try, so it is hard to see the logic behind toppling Capello at this stage. One thing he has unquestionably proved is that he can supervise an effective qualifying campaign, and that is exactly what England presently want. Once at Euro 2012, he will either go some way to redeeming the reputation he lost at the World Cup or he will fail again and take his bow. Should he be in any way successful in Poland and Ukraine, there could even be a clamour to retain him for the next World Cup. Far stranger things have happened to England managers, yet there will be no possibility of a Bobby Robson-type reversal of fortune if his contract is terminated early.

Until results start going against England, there seems no pressing reason to abandon Capello, even if we have managed to turn a sternly autocratic managerial persona into something of a figure of fun. Results are the weapons Capello can use to defend himself and if Friday's patchy, but ultimately encouraging, start can be reproduced in Switzerland on Tuesday, perhaps the trickiest fixture of the campaign, the manager will be entitled to expect the mood of the country to swing behind him and force his shriller critics to change their tune.

Already it is evident that some of the charges levelled at Capello do not stand up. There was no more a players' mutiny against his disciplinarian style at Wembley than there was a backlash from the terraces. The players all looked keen to impress and eager to implement instructions, and while the victory against Bulgaria was not without its defensive lapses, the fans went home happy. Considerably more happy than Capello looked in the interview room, as it happens – but while he may be at odds with the media the manager has clearly not lost the supporters or the dressing room.

Nor were his tactics as neolithic as people have been making out. England lined up in a traditional 4-4-2, but Wayne Rooney played his new withdrawn striker's role with studious precision, bringing the best out of Jermain Defoe in the process, Theo Walcott and James Milner cut in from the wings, and Ashley Cole was at times the most advanced attacker. Just about the only criticism of the system, apart from a couple of errors from stand-in centre‑halves, was that it subdued Gerrard by anchoring him too deep.

Yet few others were subdued. Adam Johnson gave another demonstration of his promise and confidence, the goalkeeping situation appears to have been permanently resolved and even Walcott, without managing to get on to the scoresheet, used his pace and movement to good effect. When Rooney slipped the ball to Defoe for the crucial second goal, he had the option of passing to Walcott to his right in just as good a position. Bulgaria did not know which player to mark and that was what created the opportunity. Quick, intelligent running off the ball is the essence of counterattacking.

So what's not to like? While a bad result in Basle could bring Capello down, there seems no immediate reason to expect such a thing, much less hope for it. If Capello can get England to post the sort of result they achieved in Croatia two years ago the papers might start liking him again, though the reality is that even a draw would not be a calamity. The last time England played Switzerland in a competitive fixture, in Portugal in the Euro 2004 finals, Rooney blew them away almost singlehanded in a 3-0 win. Ottmar Hitzfeld's team did provide the shock of the last World Cup by beating Spain in South Africa, though, along with Italy and France, they went home before England after failing to get out of their group.

Other countries had poor World Cups too and, even now, things may not be as dark as they are being painted, a point put to Capello at Wembley. "You write it all," he said, closing the discussion. "Not me."

The Tottenham manager will be keen to prove his Dutch recruit is a wiser move than Manchester United's investment in Bebé

In the light of Harry Redknapp's explosive response to a fairly mild bit of media stereotyping the other day, we all now have to consider whether "wheeler-dealer" is the pejorative term the Spurs manager clearly thinks it is or whether it can convey a degree of admiration for a confident and successful transfer-market operator.

The dictionary defines wheeler-dealing as "shrewd bargaining to one's maximum advantage", and it is difficult to see why any football manager should object to that, especially one who has just bought a Real Madrid player at a knockdown price with about three seconds to spare before the transfer window closed.

There is a suggestion of the unscrupulous when the expression is used in a political context, though in terms of business deals it does not normally denote anything more sinister than the ability to act quickly and think on one's feet. Redknapp should be flattered, particularly as it is Daniel Levy who does the actual dealing. The Spurs manager, as is his wont, appeared to fancy everyone this summer from Joe Cole to Diego Forlán and, though the capture of Rafael van der Vaart could be depicted as an audacious, stroke-of-midnight swoop for a top international, the more mundane reality is likely to be that one of the last of Redknapp's transfer targets was waiting to see whether Tottenham made it to the Champions League proper before making a decision.

Never mind considering that, however – consider this. Redknapp picked up Van der Vaart, fresh from a World Cup final, for £8m. Manchester United have just spent £7m on Bebé, a Portuguese player fresh from a free transfer just a few months ago, whom Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he had never seen in action.

Ferguson is the manager who is fond of complaining there is no value in the transfer market, and United are the club widely supposed no longer to have money to throw around. If Redknapp had just spent £7m of his club's money on a total unknown whose principal international achievement was playing in the Homeless World Cup, he would be getting called worse names than wheeler-dealer by now. Fergie gets away with it because he and his scouts have a good track record at the bargain end of the market – some of United's less convincing purchases over the years have been the top-dollar ones – and because everyone basically agrees with him that the sums being asked for leading players were stupidly inflated even before Manchester City came along.

We will have to wait until Bebé gets a few games to see whether Ferguson spent his money well, and similarly there is no point hailing Redknapp's apparent coup until Van der Vaart has proved himself in this country. At 27, he is not going to get many more chances to live up to the billing he received in his teens as the latest Ajax wunderkind, and like Manchester City with Mario Balotelli, Spurs have signed a fringe player rather than a central performer for his club or his country.

Balotelli, like Bebé, at least has youth on his side. Van der Vaart comes with a bigger reputation but his first task will be to win a place in a side already well off for attacking midfielders. If he is selected ahead of Luka Modric, for example, assuming Spurs will want to keep the penetration that Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon provide on the wings, the net gain may not be all that great. Redknapp may choose to try him as a secondary striker, though that will only mean Jermain Defoe or Peter Crouch missing out.

What Bebé, Balotelli and Van der Vaart all have in common is that rival clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool will not be kicking themselves for not signing them first. That's the way the transfer market seems to be at the moment. Flat, at least from an English perspective. Not even Manchester City have signed anyone the rest of the world desperately wanted, though David Silva and James Milner could both turn out to be excellent, if expensive, acquisitions.

The same could be said of Ramires at Chelsea, yet the boldest buy of the summer, in terms of a club sticking its neck out and taking a financial risk to obtain a World Cup star, was surely Sunderland's purchase of Asamoah Gyan. Sunderland are not the most glamorous of clubs, Steve Bruce not the most adventurous of managers, but were there a Premier League prize for most exciting signing of the summer transfer window – and there ought to be, don't you think? – the Ghana striker would get my vote. Javier Hernández at Manchester United would come second, and in third place, or perhaps winning the honorary award for consistent low level achievement, would be Sam Allardyce's truffle-hound's nose for loans and frees. Blackburn is now the somewhat unlikely home of two Dioufs (El Hadji and Mame Biram) and Benjani Mwaruwari.

Who needs a £300m takeover? Who needs to splash out at all when you can let City and United take the financial risks and wait for their playing stock to become surplus? City's prodigious outlay is masking a new sense of realism on terraces and in boardrooms. The age of excess is on its way out. After an economic downturn and a sobering World Cup, thrift could be coming back into fashion.

Jokers such as Wigan are exactly what Premier pack needs

So Wigan do have a point, after all. Actually they have three. Following the splendidly unexpected win at Spurs they sit above Everton and Stoke in the table, but when they were conceding 10 at home in their first two games watched by embarrassingly small numbers of their own fans it was hard to work out what purpose was being served by their presence in the top flight.

Now they can be seen as the jokers in the Premier League pack, the pepper in the stew, an added extra it is easy to ignore but dangerous to underestimate. The top tier of English football currently needs all the unpredictability it can get its hands on, and after beginning the season looking like a bad bet to be anything other than a doormat for bigger clubs (and Blackpool), the Latics bounced back with the most spectacular of pay-offs.

You may not have heard of this particular betting sensation, what with the cricket shenanigans on the same weekend and the fact that as far as I know only my wife and a couple of her workmates were on it, but the odds against Wigan winning at White Hart Lane through a single Hugo Rodallega goal were 250-1. Suffice to say if Roberto Martínez never manages to supervise another victory he will still be a god in our household, as he already seems to be in the eyes of Dave Whelan, his chairman.

Whelan has just been quoted as saying he would have quit the club had the Latics lost at Spurs and his young manager been hounded out. "I rate Roberto highly, and told the fans, if you want his head, you'll get mine as well," he said. That's backing for you. But hang on a minute. The fans couldn't force Martínez out. It would have to be Whelan's decision to sack him, just like he sacked Chris Hutchings. So is he saying he is never going to sack Martínez, come what may, or hinting he might be looking for a way out himself? He can't easily quit the club in any case.

That would leave them looking for a new owner as well as a new manager and a few more fans. Surely Wigan would collapse without Whelan. But then they were supposed to collapse at Spurs ....

Fifa's fresh start; the summer's best investment; model news; plus chairman of the week

New dawn

Man of the week: Chung Mong-joon – Sepp's new main rival in 2011's Fifa elections. Chung's Fifa credentials: a £1bn personal fortune; son of Chung Ju-yung, convicted in 1992 for misappropriating £50m; brother of Chung Mong-koo, convicted in 2007 for embezzling £45m; and regular anti-corruption talisman – last year calling his then-rival Mohamed bin Hammam a "mentally ill" man who "represents a serious lack of transparency in football". (Also last week, boosting Chung's chances: an award for "services to football" from South American confederation president Nicolás Leóz. Leóz's own transparency highlight: being named in court as taking £85k in bribes from Fifa's marketing agency in 2000.)

Also last week

New from Sepp: a pledge to release emergency aid from Fifa's Special Projects Fund to help Pakistan's football infrastructure recover.
Sepp: "Contributing to alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity after disasters within the football family is a responsibility Fifa takes very seriously." Last time Fifa used their £559m fund to aid disaster relief: February – sending £1.9m to Haiti. Four months later: Sepp gives £45.5m in one-off bonuses to Fifa member associations, ahead of next year's elections. "Just call it a gift!"

• Also new last week – Sepp launching this year's Fifa Fair Play Days. "These games must make an impact. They must encapsulate the sporting, moral and ethical principles for which Fifa has always stood."

United: nothing to see

June: Reports of low season-ticket sales are malicious, says a Manchester United spokesman: "We are very happy. Anybody who is saying there has been a poor uptake is lying." August: United miss their season ticket sales target by over 2,000; other figures show their debt now includes £236m owed to hedge funds. United: "The bare facts are that the club is in good financial shape."

Meanwhile

£45k: Welling United's outstanding tax debt – the club given 14 more weeks to pay it or face being wound-up. "The club will pursue all avenues to raise the necessary finance."
40: Number of hours it takes Yaya Touré to earn £45,000 in basic salary at Man City.

Transfer window

• Best farewell
Javier Mascherano – attacking Liverpool for trying to duck out of a promise made 12 months earlier that he could leave this summer. "They'd promised me this for a whole year ... When you read or hear lies, you get angry." (March: Javier tells the fans he'd never ask to leave a club he loves. "I have never asked to go: that was just the press saying it. I am so happy here. I give 100% for Liverpool!")

• Best wheeler dealer
Harry Redknapp, early on deadline day: "I thought it was April Fools' Day with some of the players we've been linked with. We're not doing anything today." End of deadline day: "Van der Vaart was going for £18m. Suddenly it became an awful lot cheaper."

• And one to watch
New Celtic signing Anthony Stokes: says he's put the past behind him. "I used to be immature." (Last August: Stokes joins Hibs: "I was a bit immature at Sunderland. I did some very stupid things. Being banned from that nightclub was ridiculous, but when you're young you learn. I just want to focus on my football." One month later, The Sun: SHAMED HIBS STAR IN NIGHTCLUB BRAWL.)

Racism news

Alexei Sorokin, head of Russia's 2018 bid, on why Lokomotiv Moscow fans who displayed a banner linking Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie with a cartoon banana was "not racial": "In Russia 'to get a banana' means 'to fail a test', and he was not very good." (Odemwingie: "The racism there is open ... It makes you feel sick.")

Best investment

New last week in South Africa: more details of how public funds were used during the World Cup. Among them: £30k spent by the minister of police, Nathi Mthethwa, on giant photos of himself for billboards. Mthethwa: "It was simply a message of reassurance to fans. This investment was worthy."

Chairman of the week

Nicola Cortesa, Southampton.
May: Says press claims of a developing rift with manager Alan Pardew were an attack on their "mutual trust". "This speculation could be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to unsettle both the club and Alan. Without exception it is ill‑informed."
August: Sacks him.

Not so much now

Legal news: Celebrity girlfriend Melissa Klug says she left Schalke's Jefferson Farfán live on TV in Peru and demanded 40% of his income plus image rights and a house because of her heart. "I used to love him, but not so much now." Farfán's spokesman: "Jefferson feels sad."

And finally

Paraguayan model Norita Rodriguez says rival Larissa Riquelme "lacks class". "Some of us don't need to try so hard to attract footballers. I attract many, and I don't have to put mobile phones down my breasts like she does. Boca players are fascinated by me. When Boca beat Vélez Sársfield the other day? That was because of me."

Having lost their international naivety, the maturing Republic of Ireland look the real deal for Euro 2012 qualification

Giovanni Trapattoni believes his Republic of Ireland team are ready to come of age and qualify for the Euro 2012 finals, after starting with a 1-0 victory in Armenia.

The manager detects greater maturity and a more streetwise edge to his players, and he is delighted they kept their composure on a steamy night in Yerevan on Friday, not only to take the lead in the 76th minute through the substitute Keith Fahey but to close out the result. During their qualification campaign for the World Cup in South Africa, Trapattoni's team squandered points from a winning position against Bulgaria at home and away, and against Italy at home.

"My good fortune has been that the players understand my philosophy in terms of how to achieve the result," Trapattoni says. "When it is not a beautiful day for us, we try to look for the result. We have learnt from the Italy game in Dublin, for example.

"Before I came here, the players made needless fouls on the wing. We conceded goals from free-kicks. We pushed forward when we should have stayed. It was important that they understood that games are won and lost in the little details. We have improved."

Ireland have never won a competitive fixture under Trapattoni by more than one goal but have the opportunity to do so against Andorra in Dublin on Tuesday. Not without good reason are Andorra regarded as one of European football's whipping boys. Since they came on to the scene in 1996, they have won only one competitive game and drawn two, the results coming in qualification for the 2006 World Cup. Their goal difference has regularly made for ugly reading. But Trapattoni says he will be happy enough if Ireland simply take their points tally to six, ahead of the more difficult fixtures against Russia and Slovakia next month. "World football is very difficult," Trapattoni says. "Look at France's defeat at home to Belarus. But yes, we must beat Andorra."

Robbie Keane will continue to partner Kevin Doyle up front, despite his ongoing knee injury. Trapattoni insists his captain does not need an operation and that the problem is merely to do with inflammation. The manager has also bemoaned the dearth of attacking options behind his regular strike partnership.

He is expected to name the same team, with Paul Green once again being preferred to Darron Gibson in central midfield, despite his nervous performance in Yerevan, and Aiden McGeady resisting the starting claims of Fahey.

• England midfielder goes back to knee specialist
• Portuguese striker needs more work on training ground

Manchester United have omitted Owen Hargreaves and Bebé from their Champions League squad – announced tonight – in a clear sign from Sir Alex Ferguson that neither player will be feature prominently with the team for the rest of the year.

Hargreaves has been left out on grounds of fitness; a decision that indicates Ferguson does not anticipate the injury-troubled midfielder will recover from his long-standing knee problems in the next few months. United's final group match is against Valencia on 7 December.

Bebé is a more complex case, having signed from Vitória Guimarães on 11 August for £7.4m without Ferguson ever having seen him play. United's manager had relied on recommendations before arranging a deal for the 20-year-old, but it has since become apparent to the club's coaching staff that the Portuguese is a long way from challenging for the first team and will need more work on the training ground than had been previously anticipated.

The bigger concern, however, is Hargreaves.Two and a half years of knee problems and a relapse this summer has seen him return to Colorado for specialist work with a rehabilitation team overseen by Dr Richard Steadman, who is renowned as the best knee surgeon in the business. Steadman has described the tendinitis in Hargreaves's knees as the worst he has seen in his 35-year career, and there are serious concerns at Old Trafford that the player's career is in jeopardy, at the age of 29.

Hargreaves was included in United's official squad for the Premier League but that was simply because the size of Ferguson's squad meant there was no need to leave him out. Bebé is also available for United's league matches but is not even on the club's B list for the Champions League because Uefa stipulate this is only available to players who have been at their club for two years or longer.

Ferguson, who has also left out Ritchie De Laet, had angrily denied reports that Bebé had been left out of a Manchester Senior Cup tie 10 days ago because the coaches had misgivings after watching him on the training ground. The manager argued it was simply a fitness issue, even though Anderson played in the same match after a six-month injury layoff, and despite the fact Bebé had already played six pre-season matches in Portugal.

The maximum number of players officially allowed in a Champions League squad is 25, but as United have only named 24, more questions about the strange circumstances of Bebé's transfer will be asked.

The forward made his debut for Portugal's Under-21s in their 1-0 defeat to England on Friday night and played the full match.