England should give up their World Cup spot for Ukraine

Friday brings the draw for the Qatar World Cup and with it a number of imponderables. It will be the first finals in which some of the participants will not be known – including Scotland, of course, – with war in Ukraine, Covid-19 and unresolved qualification campaigns all providing explanations for why the identities of all 32 teams will remain incomplete.

It will throw up further incongruities such as the placing of Portugal in Pot 1 should they successfully navigate their way past North Macedonia in the Path C play-off match tomorrow evening. FIFA made the announcement last week that seeds would be determined based on world rankings but there seems something inherently unfair in placing teams that finished second in their group and came through a play-off taking up a No.1 seeding place when others such as Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Mexico actually won theirs.

Then there is Ukraine. Boris Johnson had a novel solution to the problem when he suggested that the war-torn country should just be handed the berth that two countries under his UK government are vying for. It was a theme picked up by at least one English journalist last week when he argued that either Wales or Scotland should merely step aside and hand Ukraine them their qualification spot.

Perhaps should they draw England in Qatar then Gareth Southgate will do the honourable thing and gift Ukraine the points. Better still let's just hand them the trophy now.

Such daftness prompted a petition launched by a few wags who countered with the suggestion that England – an enclave for Russian funny money after all – should hand over their place instead since Wales' last World Cup appearance came in 1958 and Scotland's in 1998 while England tend to qualify every year.

Hard to imagine the Football Association – which has a turnover of half a billion each year – willingly foregoing the £10m prize money of reaching the World Cup. Much like the Scottish Football Association or the Football Association of Wales, then.

Murray for president

Speaking of the imbecilic Johnson, how long is it before we can rid him from the House of Commons again? Two years, pah. Perhaps Andy Murray will continue to hone his sharp political putdowns in time for Johnson's surely inevitable denouement.

Politics and sport don't mix, Johnson likes to tell us of course – except when they do. Sebastian Coe was a Tory minister for many years, Alec Douglas-Home, the ill-fated Conservative prime minister was a first-class cricketer while Chris Chataway, another long-distance runner was yet another Tory minister and, well, frankly, the list of such is endless.

So what chance our Andy? Well, like one of his trademark forehands down the line, he certainly didn't miss when it came to commenting on a tweet quoting Rishi Sunak as he addressed the Commons during Tuesday's budget in which he suggested that: "Only the Conservatives can be trusted with public money".

To which Murray replied: “Lol. Didn’t the conservative prime minister spend 10s of thousands of taxpayers money on gold wallpaper that keeps falling down?”

Trajkovski – the Macedonian phrase for deja vu

Do Italians have a phrase for deja vu? That was the overwhelming question when the Azzurri's second successive failure to reach the World Cup finals materialised last week but it wasn't the only matter fans were rubbing their eyes at.

Sports scientists say that visualisation and repetition are clear techniques that can improve the performance of a player and there was no better representation of that theory than when Alejandro Trajkovski lashed in North Macedonia's winner against Italy on Thursday evening. Trajkovski clearly felt right at home in Palermo's La Favorita stadium. He had, after all, spent four years as a midfielder with the Sicilian club where he played 104 times and scored 16 goals. Three of those strikes began circulating on social media in the hours after North Macedonia's stunning victory and each bore an uncanny resemblance to the one that Trajkovski skelped past Gigi Donnarumma to end Italy's hopes of qualification for Qatar.

Italy out in the football but let's keep them in the rugby

It's been a week of condescending head-patting for the Italian rugby team in the aftermath of their Six Nations victory over Wales last weekend. As noted in last Monday's column, the Azzurri managed something Scotland could not and have hopefully shelved talk of banishing them from the competition.

The fear is that money will talk, of course, and the greatest test in northern hemisphere rugby will soon be bastardised to include an interloper in the form of South Africa – all with the intention of lining the pockets of the home unions.

But there should be less haste and less speed to replace Italy. Listen to Paolo Garbisi, the man who kicked the winning conversion after Edoardo Padovani's mesmeric try, who said at the weekend: “It’s really important that we consider this a point of departure rather than a point of arrival. Quite honestly, I don’t want to be winning one game every seven years. I want to win lots of games with Italy, as many as possible.” With such conviction it would be grossly unfair to jettison Italy from the tournament.

Consider, too, that Italy's under-20s – for whom Garbisi's brother Alessandro plays – finished their Six Nations campaign with three victories – yes, and of course, one of those included a thumping 27-13 win over Scotland.

Celtic will benefit most from return of fans

It's Rangers v Celtic this week and that can mean only one thing: endless discussions about whether the Old Firm is dead or not.

Rather than become embroiled in the debate, though, the Monday kick-off is going to focus instead on the importance of home advantage. It's the first time Celtic supporters will be allowed into Ibrox since 2019 – albeit there will be a mere 700 in attendance with preference given to supporters who missed out on the Covid-cancelled Premiership fixture in March 2020.

Rangers cited at the time of their decision to make allocation cuts in 2018 that it was to meet season ticket holder demand for the fixture but the suspicion has always been that the Ibrox side implemented the policy in order to give themselves a competitive advantage after a run of five successive home defeats by Celtic in the fixture. It has diminished the spectacle as a result. Not least since most of the appeal for the match is the unique atmosphere that it throws up due to the presence of both sets of supporters being in attendance.

Covid has played its part in a lack of Celtic and Rangers fans at the homes of their respective rivals but the decision has certainly had an impact on results, too, with it favouring Rangers more than Celtic. The latter have won just once at Ibrox since the introduction of the cap on tickets.

79

The record points tally accrued by Peterhead in winning the League Two title in 2018-19. Kelty Hearts, who won the division on Saturday, need just eight points to break the record, however, even if the Fifers were to win all five of their remaining matches, they would still fall short of the fourth tier record of 98, set by Gretna in 2004-05.