Sponsorship and TV cash has ensured the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing rapidly.

Some clubs in the lower regions would jump at an offer of £10,000 a year from a sponsor or free pies for the season, while the Premiership glance at £82m and smugly say: "Because we're worth it."

Those who have seen some matches this time might beg to differ.

However, it came as a surprise when the poor state of Scottish football was mentioned with Rangers thumped 4-1 at home by a team we'd never heard of, and that after taking the lead, while Celtic failed to qualify
for group stages of the Champions League and are bottom of their Europa group.

The main reason given was that both the Glaswegian giants are short of cash because of lack of TV funding in Jockland.

Yet Celtic's average home league attendance last season was 57,671 and Rangers' 49,534.

In the same Scottish Premier Division were Hamilton Academicals and their average was a slightly more modest 3,823. Their capacity is only 6,078.

Apart from the fact that it seems astonishing clubs should be struggling on gates approaching 50,000 and 60,000, you have to commend the Hamilton manager for getting a team to even compete at that level, even though they lost 7-1 at Ibrox last season. Visits from the big two must be like gold to the Accies.

With big crowds in mind, it was disappointing to see Banks O'Dee and Civil Service Strollers knocked out of the second round of the Scottish
Cup, at least Inverurie Loco Works are still going strong and can dream of a big tie, perhaps even against Queen of the South. Good luck to them.

Because they have four players in the African Nations Cup, including Didier Drogba, Chelsea are pleading to be allowed to sign players in January, despite an earlier ban, to strengthen their squad.

We aren't talking Crewe or Chester here and Chelsea did, of course, know this would happen. So their appeal against the ban seems pathetic.

They must have the strongest subs' bench in the country and have just got another superstar, Joe Cole, back from injury. If they can't call up a few decent reserves something is wrong.


MORE worrying news about former Dewsbury prop Dominic Maloney, now at the Fax, who has returned from holiday in Thailand with his bucket and spade but brought no present for his mum Julia.

Dom went with former team mates Andy Bostock, Alex Bretherton and Liam Crawley and it was thought they might bring back a lady boy to keep their rooms tidy. No such luck.

Very exciting to see England top of rugby league's Four Nations table after a thrilling win over France.

The day after Australia and New Zealand made the England game look like a lads' match.

England take on the Aussies at Wigan's Piedome on Saturday afternoon - that's a rarity - and a big improvement is needed. The Kangaroos must win, so watch out.

You may not have noticed but a British tennis doubles team, Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski, claimed their sixth title of the year with victory in the Orleans Open in France. Fair enough it isn't Bumbledon but it's a win.

If either of the Murray brothers had been in that duo, it would have knocked Cheryl Cole off the front pages, yet these two seem to be unheard of.

Surely, with Britain in the same group as the likes of the Eskimos and Outer Mongolia in the Davis Cup, they might be considered.