Santana - pushed or did he jump?

Can France cope with 30,000 Irish fans humming La Marseillaise? That’s the prospect facing them again after yesterday’s draw. Of course boss Giovanni Trapattoni has weightier strategic issues on his mind after admitting his team must raised their game once more to overcome the 2006 finalists.

You have to take your hat off to the people at Football Rankings. They spend ages working out complicated formulas which mere mortals such as you and I might pretend to understand but actually don’t. Here they are on the possibilities for the World Cup finals draw in December.

And there is some confusion over the manner of Joel Santana’s departure as South African coach. Africa Times News says he was sacked, as does bloomberg.com, the AFP news agency and Reuters. The blog world says Santana jumped before he was pushed, knowing he was on borrowed time. In all likelihood, both sides agreed enough was enough, but “amicable split” isn’t much of a headline. Hence the sacked and fired stories. Former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira heads the list of candidates to take over.