Portsmouth v Fulham
Sky Sports 1, kick-off 8pm
Portsmouth have lost their status as the South Coast’s most unstable club to Southampton, who, oddly, have a chairman with no power to decide who manages the team. It seemed at first that Paul Sturrock’s departure last week was merely a routine dismissal by a club, until Rupert Lowe, the chairman, revealed it was actually the media that did the deed through unfounded stories that unsettled the manager and made his removal inevitable. Sturrock was sacked because newspapers put forward the ridiculous notion that he was about to be sacked. Lowe, you understand, was desperate for Sturrock to stay but, he reasoned, it was unwise to keep a member of staff who had suffered such criticism. The subsequent media attacks on the chairman, therefore, can only lead to one outcome. Lowe: “I have become unsettled by criticism in the media, which has left me with no choice but to sack myself.”
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SATURDAY
Austria v England
Sky Sports 1, kick-off 7pm
Sven-Göran Eriksson has agreed to let David Beckham and Michael Owen miss some of England’s preparations for this match so they can play in a friendly for Real Madrid. He explained that he wanted to maintain good relations with the Spanish giants. You can see his point. If he does not show good will towards clubs, who knows what they might do? In an extreme situation, for example, they might prevent two of England’s most important players from getting ready for a World Cup qualifying double-header, merely so that they can play in a piddling friendly match. Late news: Eriksson has agreed that all Premiership clubs should not release their England players for four years, so that he can maintain good relations with them.
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SUNDAY
Brazil v Bolivia
Bravo, kick-off 8.30pm
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Bravo are showing all of Brazil’s qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, plus a few of their friendlies. The channel’s schedule this week includes World’s Wildest Police Videos, Adventure Emergencies, The World’s Most Dangerous Animals, Natural Disasters, Near Misses, Scariest Places on Earth, The World’s Deadliest Gangs and Diaries of Death. Try as they might, they couldn’t quite fit Songs of Praise into their line-up. Will football on Bravo be a success? Unless torrential rain floods the stadium and a shark eats the referee, or Ronaldo volleys home from 40 yards while parachuting into the stadium as he tries to shake off a police helicopter, regular viewers of the channel may feel let down.
LIVE MATCHES
Today: 12.30pm: Leicester City v Brighton and Hove Albion, Coca-Cola Championship, Sky Sports 1. 8pm: Portsmouth v Fulham, Barclays Premiership, Sky Sports 1. Tomorrow: 7.45pm: Hull City v Bradford City, League One, Sky Sports 1. Friday: 7.45pm: Wycombe Wanderers v Oxford United, League Two, Sky Sports 3. 9pm: Spain v Scotland, friendly, Five. Saturday: 12.05pm: Carlisle United v Burton Albion, Nationwide Conference, Sky Sports 1. 3pm: Northern Ireland v Poland, World Cup qualifer, BBC One (throughout UK). 3pm: Ireland v Cyprus, World Cup qualifier, Sky Sports 1. 5pm: Azerbaijan v Wales, World Cup qualifier, Sky Sports 1. 7pm: Austria v England, World Cup qualifier, Sky Sports 1. Sunday: 8.30pm: Brazil v Bolivia, World Cup qualifier, Bravo.