IT'S coming to something when one of the essential items for a football team these days is a towel.
Watching Stoke City duff up Arsenal on Sunday, I was sick and tired of the game being held up while Stoke's long-throw expert Rory Delap trotted over to the touchline, took a fluffy towel from a ball boy, carefully wiped the ball down, wiped it a
gain, tossed the towel back to the boy and then prepared to throw in.
If Delap threw a ball in from the right and it was kicked into touch on the left, he had to jog across and go through the same routine. Gareth Southgate was comment man for ITV and pointed out each throw took 20 to 30 seconds. It was like having time-outs in American football.
I was hoping someone throwing in for Arsenal side would ask for a towel. Apparently it happened at one game this time with a visiting player and he was told to fluff off.
To my mind wiping the ball should be banned, after all when it rains the ball gets wet and you have to cope with it. Just because someone wants to manipulate the system he shouldn't be allowed off-field help.
Where does it stop? Does a goalkeeper ask for a towel before kicking upfield from a dead ball or does somebody wipe the ball before taking a corner.
As it is matches, which used to start at three o'clock and finish by a quarter to five, go on until nearer five past five. If Delap keeps getting his way they'll go on until seven.
We are told referees add time on to cater for Delap's throws but he must do 12 or 15 a match. If Stoke are winning, the ref should allow additional time but if they are losing, he shouldn't allow any. That would sharpen things up.
Otherwise the FA Cup went according to plan with Leeds shaking Spurs after seeing off Man U. If anything last Saturday was a better performance because Tottenham were ready for them and played a full-strength side, Manchester were perhaps a shade complacent and included reserves. Jermaine Beckford showed a lot of guts taking that late penalty.
One thing about the Man U and Spurs results for Leeds – they made Exeter seem a good side.
Sol Campbell, whose only appearance this season was for Notts County at Morecambe, where they lost, turned out for Arsenal at Stoke at the age of 35.
It took just over 28 minutes before they were discussing his prospects of playing for England in the World Cup. If he played for Bolton or Burnley, this would never have been mentioned.
n Rugby union has joined rugby league in having more people on the touchline doing statistics than are actually on the field. Apparently each one has an important job and a track suit. Yet it didn't stop Ospreys playing for a brief period with 16 men against Leicester.
Maybe that's the trouble, there are too many on the touchline. If you add the subs, they look like a Batley bar at last orders. One man with a clipboard and pen used to be enough.
n Tennis has started with the Australian Open in Melbourne and, as usual, great excitement about Andy Murray and already talk of Wimbledon which is five months away.
The BBC, as cost careless as ever, even had their sports bulletins read by somebody based in Australia, talking about things happening over here. Then came the traditional story. All the pictures and the fuss that overtook even the great Andy was because Serena Williams played a match wearing flesh-coloured undies.
And they wonder why the vast majority in the country don't take the bonk-bonk game seriously.
