Everton EGM ruling: Grounds to make a point

It's legal, it's hard-nosed, but it's hardly democratic.

"We are simply putting ourselves into line with our contemporaries," said acting CEO Robert Elstone.

Which is fine. But Everton can't claim to be different any more.

The decision to ballot fans on a ground move was a brave one - and still unique.

But results revealing 59.27% in favour, 40.73% against showed a sizeable minority were opposed to the idea.

Some of those shareholders want the opportunity to re-confirm that opposition.

"It was made clear to us that a section of our shareholders would continue to petition, every few weeks, for General Meetings until they won the right to hold a hand vote on the future of the Destination Kirkby project," added Elstone.

Why is a hand vote so unpalatable?

These are the customers the Blues hope to entice to a new stadium, so why not let them display their dissatisfaction?

Wacky world of league tables

MORE evidence of Blatter buffoonery.

Can anyone make sense of this week's World Cup qualifying tables?

Croatia have won one, lost one, scored four and conceded four, while group rivals Belarus have the same win-loss ratio, but have scored three and conceded only two.

Yet Croatia stand above Belarus in the Group Six table.

"Maybe it's goals scored which count," the more perceptive among you may mutter.

So why do Sweden, one win and one draw with a goal difference of 2:1, stand ahead of Denmark in Group One, one win, one draw and a goals ratio of 3:2?

Perhaps it's head to head records? But Sweden and Denmark haven't met yet.

Baffling, because in Group Five Turkey appear to head Belgium on goal difference - 3-1, plays 4-3 - but not in Group Seven, where Austria's 3-3 goal difference is ruled superior to Serbia's 3-2. Romania's 1-3 is better than France's 3-4!

At least Latvia and Luxembourg is easy to work out. They boast identical records, so alphabetical order must be used.

But not everything in FIFA land is as easy as ABC.

England turn-off proves Jamie Carragher was right

THE tabloids tried hard to drum up a controversy after Jamie Carragher's new book revealed he loved his club more than his country.

Only Stan Collymore bit,

because it seems that everyone agrees with Carragher's forthright views.

"You do not want to hear things like that, but I do understand where someone like Carragher is coming from," said Mark Perryman, of the England Fans' Group.

The national viewing figures spoke even more eloquently last Saturday night.

England opened their World Cup campaign against group whipping boys Andorra, watched by less than a million England fans.

In one of the lowest audiences ever recorded, just 922,000 households decided it was worth forking out £12.99.

More viewers actually tuned in to see Andy Murray overhaul Rafael Nadal in the semi-final of the US Open.

ITV and BBC decided £1m wasn't a worthwhile price to pay for an England highlights package, either.

None of us, it seems, are England fans any more.