Captain and two bowlers protest their innocence as players are to be interviewed by police under caution

The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam that has thrown world cricket into crisis were last night charged under the anti-corruption code of the game's governing body and provisionally suspended.

After a day that began with the Pakistan Cricket Board agreeing to omit the players from the team for the rest of the tour, and the Pakistan high commissioner claiming they were "set-up" by the News of the World, the ICC suspended the three pending a tribunal.

Outside the west London hotel in which Test captain Salman Butt, fast bowler Mohammad Asif and brilliant teenage prospect Mohammad Amir are also staying, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat provided the swift action many in the game had demanded.

"We will not tolerate corruption in cricket – simple as that. We must be decisive with such matters and, if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban," he said.

"The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport's integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant. It is important, however, that we do not pre-judge the guilt of these three players. That is for the independent tribunal alone to decide."

Under tougher new rules brought in last year by the ICC, the players can be suspended provisionally ahead of any hearing if it is in the interests of the game.

The row was triggered by allegations in the News of the World that the three had agreed to bowl no-balls in specific overs of last week's fourth Test at Lord's in return for money.

The charges were announced after officials from the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU) spent the afternoon at Scotland Yard viewing evidence and seeking police go-ahead. The police are conducting a parallel criminal inquiry.

The three players will today be interviewed under police caution for the first time. Earlier they had agreed to withdraw from the rest of the tour citing the "mental torture" they had been placed under by the allegations. They protested their innocence and the Pakistani high commissioner suggested they might have been "set up" by the News of the World.

While their team-mates were turning out against Somerset 160 miles away in Taunton, the accused three were being whisked into their country's high commission in London amid a flurry of claims and top level political negotiations.

ICC investigators, who had been examining spot-fixing allegations against Pakistan for some time, have been in London since Monday. Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the former Northern Ireland police chief who was appointed chairman of the ACSU three months ago, arrived from Abu Dhabi to join them, while its chief investigator, Ravi Sawani, met police.

But despite withdrawing the players from the tour, following pressure behind the scenes from the England and Wales Cricket Board and the sport's global governing body, the Pakistan camp remained bullish.

The high commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, claimed the players had been "set up" by the News of the World. Asked if they had been framed, he answered "yes" and suggested the newspaper's video evidence could have been filmed after the contentious no-balls had been bowled.

The News of the World said it "refuses to respond to such ludicrous allegations". The newspaper is understood to be preparing further revelations for Sunday.

Hasan said of the three players: "They are extremely disturbed about what has happened in the past week, particularly in regards to their alleged involvement in the crime. They mentioned they are entirely innocent and shall defend their innocence as such.

"They further maintain that on account of the mental torture that has affected them they are not in right frame of mind to play the remaining matches."

Pakistani journalists repeatedly asked whether the team was a victim of a conspiracy and Pakistan's sports minister, Ijaz Jakhrani, also suggested there could be another explanation for the apparently damning News of the World evidence.

"Let's wait until the report comes. After that we will be in a position to see if it is spot fixing, if it is match fixing or if it is a conspiracy against these players or against the country," he told the Indian news channel CNN-IBN.

After the three wary-looking players arrived to a media posse and a small knot of 20 or so protesters, officials from the Pakistan high commission handed out copies of an article by the journalist and academic Roy Greenslade.

The piece was highly critical of the methods used in previous stings by Mazher Mahmood – the so-called "Fake Sheikh" behind the sensational News of the World claim that a middleman accepted £150,000 to correctly predict the exact time when no-balls would be bowled.

Although Hasan insisted the three players were "not running away" – they will remain in England and their passports are being held by the team manager – they were whisked out of a side door and departed in a people carrier while the car in which they arrived acted as a decoy.

Mazhar Majeed, the 35-year-old middleman the News of the World alleges was at the heart of the betting sting, was arrested on Sunday and released on bail. Separately, he was also arrested as part of an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs into money laundering through Croydon Athletic, the non-league football club he owns.

Both the ECB and the ICC felt the intense focus on and public clamour for action had made it impossible for the three players to play any further part in the tour. The ICC was under pressure to act before Sunday's Twenty20 match between England and Pakistan in Cardiff.

Sources had indicated all week that a negotiated withdrawal was the most likely solution, but a last minute intervention from PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, threw a spanner in the works. His insistence that the players might still play was seen as an attempt to reassure the Pakistani public that it was not capitulating.

• England manager keeps 4-4-2 and most of World Cup failures
• Steven Gerrard backs Capello before Bulgaria qualifier

Fabio Capello will send England back into competitive action tomorrow evening with the same formation and virtually the same personnel humiliated by Germany at the World Cup in June, but the Italian insists he remains "a fighter" who will weather the storm engulfing his tenure as manager.

Jermain Defoe will start tomorrow night's opening Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria, with the trio of changes to the line-up that began the 4-1 World Cup defeat at the Free State Stadium all enforced, dashing any hopes of this proving to be the dawn of a new era. England hope to include Phil Jagielka, who was able to train at Wembley today, and will pick Theo Walcott, the pair effectively replacing the injured John Terry and Frank Lampard, with the only other change from the side beaten in Bloemfontein coming in goal, where Joe Hart steps in for David James.

Capello has received the timely backing of his acting captain, Steven Gerrard, who is expected to start in a central role, and reacted to recent criticism in the media with good humour while acknowledging that the public perception of his reign could shift if Bulgaria are not beaten. "You create a god, and you create a monster, no?" he said. "But this pressure is normal for a manager. It's my job. I remember at Roma, Milan, [Real] Madrid, here – it's the same. It's too easy to be the best when you win, but when you lose you lose everything. You live with this pressure and you have to fight, and I'm a fighter."

England have maintained an impressive level of support – a crowd of over 75,000 is expected at Wembley tonight – suggesting the public continue to back Capello despite his side's dismal failure at the World Cup, though the need to start Group G on a positive note is clear. The manager's approach to training or, it seems, tactics has not shifted since those toils yet Gerrard was quick to insist faith is very much retained in a hugely experienced manager who has enjoyed a glittering career at club level.

"I wanted him to stay [after the World Cup] and I have a lot of belief in him," the midfielder said. "It would have been a knee-jerk reaction to sack the manager after one bad tournament and it would have been crazy to think everything would then be rosy starting with a new guy and that we'd go on and win the Euros. It's crazy to think it's as easy as that. It's important that Fabio is still given a chance. For me, he's a fantastic manager.

"People talk about having to have an English manager, but which Englishman out there has the CV that Fabio Capello has got? The communication is not a problem. He talks to the players individually, and the team, and the message does come across. There's a lot of blame being placed on the manager but it was the players who underperformed out in South Africa. People talk about tactics and stuff but there's only so much that a manager can do. The players have to deliver, and the players didn't do that in Africa."

Gerrard conceded that he could not speak for everyone within the England set-up – "How can I know if everyone is totally 100% behind him if I can't control what's going through every player's mind?" – but pointed to a willingness as a group to "put things right together". "He's been the same, and the routines in training are quite similar," he added. "This is a fresh start in terms of going into a new campaign and trying to qualify for a major tournament, even if it's not a fresh start in terms of the management, but it's now up to the players to ease the pressure and take the focus off him."

The team that start against Bulgaria, ranked 43rd in the world, are expected to retain the look of a 4-4-2 with James Milner preferred to Adam Johnson on the left, though Capello suggested the reality of his strategy would be more flexible.

"We will play the 'modern style'," said Capello, who has released the goalkeeper Scott Carson due to a family bereavement and called up Watford's Scott Loach from the Under-21s as cover. "Usually teams play 9-1: all the defenders have to go forward at times and all the forwards have to defend at times. So [Wayne] Rooney has to come back into midfield sometimes. That is what Barcelona do.

"But when you win people say you play the perfect style. When you lose, people question positions on the pitch. My job is to find the best solution."

• Kei Nishikori beats Cilic, Richard Gasquet sinks Davydenko
• The favourite Roger Federer untroubled by Andreas Beck

The early exits of the ninth seed, Andy Roddick, and Tomas Berdych (7) yesterday, followed by Nikolay Davydenko (6) and Marin Cilic (11) today, have breathed unexpected life into this US Open. Yet the focus remains trained on the man favoured to win it, Roger Federer.

Even when he is playing nobody, Federer is somebody. The second seed strolled past Brian Dabul in the first round and was equally relaxed in beating Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Progress does not come more serene.

The heat has provided the X-factor in several matches, testing fitness and commitment to the limit. No result is taken for granted. Today Cilic seized up with cramp and went out in five tough sets to Japan's Kei Nishikori; Richard Gasquet, untroubled, accounted for Davydenko 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

While local audiences clearly bemoan Roddick's loud departure more, Berdych's loss was a greater shock, those of Davydenko and Cilic about on a par. Gasquet, a player nowhere near as reliable as this New York weather, would be lethal if he could find some consistency.

After the abrasive Roddick had foot-faulted and mouth-faulted his way out of his own national tournament last night against the more thoughtful Janko Tipsarevic (the Serb reads Nietzsche and has a tattoo that whispers: "Beauty will save the world"), the Americans looked to reformed lard-arse Mardy Fish.

He did not let them down. Fish clearly has put his many wasted years behind him and looked convincing in beating the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in exactly two hours to reach the third round.

Fish, who outlasted Murray in Cincinnati before reaching the final there against Federer, did his bit for Uncle Sam. He dropped serve early but broke back twice to take the first set, then eroded Cuevas's confidence to win 7-5, 6-0, 6-2.

Fish, who is asked at every press conference about his impressive loss of two stones since last September, looks more dangerous than in his precocious youth. His backhand is lethal. He is serving big aces (although his first percentage is down to 52) and he actually likes talking about his fitness. Few here have handled the heat better, apart from maybe Murray who, oddly, wobbled in their Ohio quarter-final.

"There's a lot of people that have talked about my summer and how well I've played," Fish said. "To be honest, I felt like I've been the underdog most matches in my career. This is the spot that I want to be in. You want to be the favourite and winning a lot. I have played well here the past couple times. I've got a really good opportunity."

He is, sadly, burdened by the pre-tournament endorsement of the Guardian as the best outside bet in the field. Punters tempted to lay off ought to do so before Fish collides with Federer, which could not happen before the semi-finals.

Federer, lurking like a basking shark on the other side of the draw, knows he will not have either Rafa Nadal or Andy Murray to deal with until the crunch on Sunday week (perhaps neither of them) but, in the meantime, next up he has Paul-Henri Mathieu, who beat his fellow Frenchman Guillaume Rufin 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 on court four, as the shadows grew across Flushing Meadows. The Swiss could not have asked for a quieter start.

Paul Rees offers his thoughts on the new rugby union campaign in the first Breakdown column of the season

What a difference a year makes. Last season's Premiership started amid a storm about spots of blood but it is cricket currently hogging the spotlight with claims of spot-fixing. Rugby union has enjoyed a quiet off-season in Britain, and well deserved after the Bloodgate and drug brouhahas last year and the investigation into allegations of rape made against some members of the England squad in New Zealand in 2009, which were proven to be unfounded.

Unlike football, rugby union does not suffer from transfer madness in the summer, primarily because very few transfer fees are paid. Players tend to move on when their contracts are up and usually conclude deals at the start of a calendar year when those with less than six months to go on their deals are free to talk to other clubs.

There is no rugby equivalent of the football transfer deadline day that gets Sky Sports News so excited. Deal or no deal, voices rise higher than sums paid. Rugby union only commands such attention when shabby cheating is exposed or political wars are fought and its lack of self-generating momentum media-wise will make it hard for Premier Rugby to achieve its dream of overtaking football's Championship in terms of popularity.

For all the talk of increased interest and record attendances, the fact remains that the three northern clubs in the Premiership – Sale, Leeds and Newcastle – have, between them, an average gate that is less than Leicester's. The Tigers, who announced this week that they were back in profit, may be an unfair example, but the statistics betray a tension that the game will need to address in the coming years.

The salary cap has helped Newcastle and Sale remain relatively competitive, even if they were fortunate that Worcester ended last season so tamely. The likes of Leicester and Northampton have long argued that the cap either needs to be radically reviewed or abolished and they can expect to be joined by Saracens and Bath at least.

It may be that, in time, the cap is set to a maximum percentage of turnover rather than be operated at a common, fixed level. If, the argument goes, there is a considerable disparity in income, why should spending on wages be equal?

That assumes that all 12 clubs reach the cap's limit. Leeds didn't last season: as the promoted club, they received less in central funds than the rest, as Exeter will this season, but the danger for Newcastle and Sale, unless they increase their turnovers, is that they will overreach themselves just trying to keep up in an era when banks are reluctant to lend.

They have both got rid of high earners in the last 15 months, the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Carl Hayman, Luke McAlister, Sébastien Chabal and Juan Fernández Lobbe all earning their livings abroad. None was replaced in kind and there is the danger with clubs like Leicester, Northampton, Gloucester and Harlequins all improving their facilities in recent years, soon to be joined by Bath while Saracens have expanded their fanbase by regularly playing at Wembley, the cap will not prevent the Premiership becoming a two-tier tournament.

Exeter have already complained that their funding this season is unfair because it is set at a lower level than the rest. The flip side is that if they are relegated at the end of the campaign, a parachute payment will ensure that they receive considerably more money than any other club in the Championship, but their complaint is a fair one.

If the point of a salary cap is to achieve a levelling out, should some be more equal than others? Exeter at least start their first campaign in the top flight on Saturday at home to Gloucester before what is expected to be a sell-out crowd at Sandy Park.

The fixture schedule has proved more beneficial than the funding system. Not only do the Chiefs have a West Country derby before their faithful, but Gloucester have not often travelled well in the last couple of seasons. Leeds took a while to get going last season, but they were helped by the negative mindset that clotted the game then which meant that failure to score tries was not necessarily a disadvantage.

The emphasis this campaign will be on using the ball, not kicking it away. Leicester, Saracens and Bath finished last season in style and they can be expected to be the pace-setters this time. Northampton will be with them if they attack more from outside-half.

England are talking about showing more ambition and they have the players to sustain a faster game. A year from now the World Cup will be about to start: the latter stages of the tournament are not generally a showcase for adventure, but the mistake after 2007 was to use England's final two matches in France as evidence that the game was badly in need of repair.

Never mind what had gone before, not least the quarter-final between New Zealand and France and Fiji's campaign, the consequent meddling cost the game a couple of years when its splendid diversity should have been talked up. The Tri-Nations has shown it is back where it was and it is now up to Europe to grasp the baton.

Refereeing The Breakdown

The Magners League also starts tomorrow night, augmented by the presence of two Italian teams which will add to the diversity of the tournament, if not the number of away supporters on the terraces.

It has spent its existence in the shadow of the Premiership in terms of national media coverage. The lack of relegation has removed fear of failure but it has also taken away a hook. The Scarlets failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup at the end of the season, rescued by Cardiff Blues winning the Challenge Cup and creating an extra vacancy for a Welsh team in the main event, but what was that compared to the prospect of one of the most famous names in the world game losing their status?

A perennial debate is which league is better. The Magners is regarded as more conducive to risk, because there is no trap-door, while the Premiership is hailed for its intensity and competitiveness.

The Scarlets' Scotland wing, Sean Lamont, who joined the region last season from Northampton, believes that the importance of winning deters Premiership sides from being creative. "Teams look to attack and be entertaining in the Magners because there is no relegation," he argues. "There are more attacking opportunities in the backline. The threat of relegation in the Premiership makes the playing style different."

There has been a crucial difference between the leagues: the way the breakdown has been refereed, last season's crackdown on attacking teams notwithstanding. Defenders have long been given more latitude in the Magners, prompting more turnovers and counter-attacking, as the first year of the Anglo-Welsh Cup showed.

Time was when defences in the Premiership only had the chance of relief at the breakdown if a tackled player was blown for holding on; otherwise it was a case of a wave of recycling until a mistake was made.

Referees have been directed this season to show no tolerance to defenders who go off their feet after a tackle or enter a ruck from the side. It has to be policed properly so that defenders who do stay on their feet are allowed to compete for the ball and force a turnover.

It is a question of balance, something that was missing last season and in previous years in the Premiership. Now teams are not afraid to counterattack, they have to be allowed the means to do so.

This is an excerpt from The Breakdown, guardian.co.uk/sport's free rugby union email. Get The Breakdown delivered direct to your inbox by signing up here.

• Former Liverpool manager could link up with Kevin MacDonald
• Caretaker would stay on as first-team coach

Gérard Houllier could make a surprise return to football with Aston Villa after it emerged last night that the Frenchman is under serious consideration for a director of football role that would see him work alongside Kevin MacDonald.

Villa have been interviewing candidates for the vacant manager's position this week, including MacDonald, who has been in charge on a caretaker basis ever since Martin O'Neill resigned five days before the start of the season, but Houllier is now the leading contender. Houllier has not been involved in management since he left Lyon in 2007 but he has extensive knowledge of English football, following the six years he spent in charge of Liverpool, between 1998 and 2004, and is highly respected within the game.

The 62-year-old has, however, suffered heart problems and it seems highly unlikely that Villa would want him to take over as manager and expose him to the considerable pressure that would accompany that position. A much more plausible scenario would see Houllier work in tandem with MacDonald, who is regarded as an excellent coach but has failed to convince that he is management material during the five games he has spent in charge.

Graham Taylor, the former England and Villa manager, suggested such a structure would work well when he recently held talks with Paul Faulkner, the club's chief executive, to offer advice about O'Neill's successor. Taylor believes that MacDonald's skills are on the training ground and Villa appear to have accepted that is the case. MacDonald , who was interviewed by Randy Lerner, Villa's owner, on Wednesday, has indicated that he would be receptive to working in partnership with a more experienced figure.

There were suggestions last night that Villa would make an appointment today but club officials have indicated a decision is not imminent.

Although Houllier's time at Anfield will be remembered by many Liverpool supporters for the poor signings that were a feature of the latter years of his reign, he also achieved considerable success, most notably in 2001, when the club won three major trophies. His responsibilities at Villa would be wide-ranging and include setting up a worldwide scouting network to address weaknesses in that area.

Villa's search for a new manager has already led to Sven-Goran Eriksson and Alan Curbishley being interviewed for the post. Eriksson is not in the running but Curbishley has yet to be ruled out. Houllier, however, is top of the shortlist and has held positive discussions with the Villa hierarchy.

If you talk a player down he will surely rise up to contradict you – unless he's playing for England, of course

On Saturday I had two visitors from the continent. They'd already seen Buckingham Palace, Edinburgh Castle and Bath, so there seemed no other way to complete their tour of Britain's cultural highlights than to take them to the Victoria Ground to see Hartlepool play Sheffield Wednesday.

Looking at the away team in the programme shortly before kick-off, as the man behind us warmed up for an afternoon of hearty complaining with a few light moans about the number of old age pensioners he'd had to queue behind in Morrisons, my eyes alighted on a name from the past. "Neil Mellor," I exclaimed to my friends, "Hah! Neil Mellor. He came out of the Liverpool academy. He was supposed to be the next Robbie Fowler. The new Ian Rush. Hah!" I added for emphasis, because when you are a middle-aged bloke the collapse of a younger man's career is a source of delight that only the words "at this stage, I don't feel there's any need to carry out a full prostate examination" can really match.

My joy survived until five minutes into the game, by which time Mellor had already established such dominance over the home centre-backs he appeared to be twice as big as both of them put together. The on-loan striker brushed opponents aside like they were matchwood, surged forward as unstoppably as a tidal bore, set up one goal, blasted home another. He looked like some Hyborian Age-version of Emile Heskey: Conan the Targetman. The new Ian Rush be buggered, this was the new Hotshot Hamish.

We often hear commentators say they have "put the mockers" on a player by praising him, but what we had at the Victoria Ground was an equally common, though altogether less remarked upon, sporting phenomenon – the reverse mockers. Just as if you talk up a player you can be guaranteed that he will promptly display the first touch of a steam hammer and the balance of a Daily Mail editorial on asylum seekers, so if you talk a player down he will surely rise up to contradict you (unless he's playing for England, clearly).

I have to say that I am something of an expert in the field, having been schooled in the craft by my grandfather, a man whose snorting derision was so frequently confounded by subsequent events that if I'd been paid a pound every time he'd wisely observed "What's he doing? He'll never score from here" only to see the ball ballooning the back of the net a split second later, I'd be richer than a Sharjah bookmaker.

Down the years – or so it appears to me – dozens of sportsmen have revived their careers purely in order to spite me, but the one who humiliated me most was mustachioed winger Peter Beagrie, arguably the first player to do acrobatics as a goal celebration and thus a source of anguish to club physiotherapists and insurance brokers everywhere.

Back in the mid-90s I used to go to Roker Park with my old next-door neighbour and his son. I always enjoyed it because if Sunderland won my old neighbour bought us beer in the pub on the way home and if they lost, well, as a Middlesbrough fan, it cheered me up, obviously. One Saturday Sunderland had signed Beagrie on loan from Everton. When he made his debut, we were stood in the Fulwell end. "This lad played for the Boro, didn't he?" my next-door neighbour's son said. "What's he like then?"

"Bags of trickery, but there isn't an end-product," I said wisely. "Flatters to deceive. You think he's brilliant, until you realise nothing ever comes of it all. It's physical blather. He's the Don King of ball control. His talent is like an elaborate toupee – an artifice that works hard to conceal nothing and ultimately fools nobody."

After such a trashing there was clearly only one way things could go. And they did. Five minutes into the game Beagrie zipped past the full-back and whipped in a cross that Don Goodman headed into the net. Ten minutes later he blasted a shot against a post from 25 yards. Midway through the second half he banged a volley straight into the top corner from even farther out.

As the ball zipped down the netting my next-door neighbour and his son turned to me with raised eyebrows. "No end-product," they said. "Nothing ever comes of it …"

"Oh yes," I said, "he's doing it now, but that's only to make me look a total idiot. Wait till I'm at Ayresome Park and you're here on your own. See what he does then." Beagrie was back at Goodison inside three months, but the damage had been done.

At least at the Victoria Ground on Saturday the unfamiliarity of their surroundings had disoriented my friends sufficiently to get away with it. "Which is the forward you said is so hopeless he couldn't find the ground if you pushed him out of a tree?" one of them asked as Mellor romped into the penalty area once again. "Sadly," I replied, "he appears not to be playing." Which was true in some ways, at least.

Land ahoy everyone! James Richardson is back for another stint at the helm of the good ship Football Weekly Extra, where he's joined by Sean Ingle, Paul Doyle and Paul MacInnes.

Topics up for discussion include the big last-minute transfers across Europe – including just how Milan were able to sign Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic a week after relying on Genoa to help them bring in Kevin-Prince Boateng. Meanwhile Sid Lowe joins us from a metro station in Madrid to tell us how Rafael van der Vaart moving to Spurs has gone down in the Spanish capital.

We assess England's chances ahead of tomorrow's game against Bulgaria, look at Laurent Blanc's new-look France and give a nod to Non-League day.

Have a listen and post your feedback below. We're also on iTunes, Facebook and Twitter, and if you enjoy this type of thing, get your daily dose of football with our tea-time email, The Fiver.

One more thing: Football Weekly is coming to Liverpool for a live show in October. If you'd like to be part of the audience click here.

• Steven Naismith replaces the Birmingham City striker
• Craig Levein makes eight changes to side beaten in Sweden

James McFadden is the most notable player to pay the penalty for Scotland's dismal friendly showing in Sweden last month, with the Birmingham City man dropped for tomorrow night's Euro 2012 qualifier in Lithuania.

McFadden, an iconic figure for the Scottish support on account of his 15 goals in 46 internationals, has been left out by Craig Levein with the Rangers forward Steven Naismith a surprise starter in support of Kenny Miller, the lone striker. Naismith has opened the season brightly, but has featured just three times before for his country.

David Weir will, as expected, partner Stephen McManus at the heart of the Scotland defence. Alan Hutton's swift return from groin surgery also hands him a place in Levein's starting XI.

Middlesbrough's Barry Robson has been preferred to Graham Dorrans on the left of Levein's midfield. In total, Levein has made eight changes to the side beaten 3-0 in Stockholm.

• Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole also win Fifa plaudits
• One nominee apiece from underachieving France and Italy

The England World Cup squad returned from their dismal campaign in South Africa to headlines damning a performance in which they displayed "no spark, no spirit, no hope". Wayne Rooney, the Footballer of the Year, had become a "flop" and a truculent one at that, swearing at fans who booed the team off the park following their draw with Algeria at Green Point Stadium, or the "cape of no hope" as the Sun put it.

But today the revisionist view was put forward by no less an authority than Fifa's 16-man technical study group, which included the former France and Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier and the former Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh. Their report said England had in fact been a team with "strong, hard-working players" whose "aerial strength [was] used effectively at set pieces in defence", and they singled out Rooney for praise as a "hard-working, energetic striker; [who] worked hard for the team; good technique" and nominated the goalless centre-forward as one of England's three players of the tournament.

Yet in July, Houllier placed the blame for England's failure firmly at Rooney's door. "The key to understanding why England didn't perform at the World Cup is that the top players didn't do as well as we could expect them to," he said. "I'm thinking mainly about Wayne Rooney."

Houllier's Anfield past may shed some light on the report's acclaim for Steven Gerrard whose tournament started so brightly with his fourth-minute goal against the USA but faded into a series of aimless long-shots and positional incoherence during the 4-1 defeat by Germany.

The England captain was, the report maintains,, the team's most influential player, "a dynamic midfielder with good vision and technique, who linked defence and attack". England's "effective use of full-backs" impressed the group and earned Ashley Cole the final place among the team's three "outstanding players".

Fifa's assessment of the side will raise eyebrows with the long-suffering England faithful – although few could argue with the football governing body's assessment of Spain. The winners were "a complete team, arguably contenders for team of the century", proving the group had not completely lost their minds. But praising England's energy and industry does seem the equivalent of awarding an A for effort to the dullest member of the class. Either that or the report's authors have promising futures as alchemists, having just turned the basest of metals into gold.

• Football League share transfer raises ownership questions
• Club was dogged by boardroom problems last season

Portsmouth are awaiting the transfer of their Football League share to their parent company-in-waiting, PFC Realisations. Fans hope that will mark the end of the sorry saga that led to their club's near extinction earlier this year. But is that hope misplaced?

Throughout the ownership of Sasha Gaydamak, Pompey were dogged with rumours – repeatedly denied by both Gaydamak and the Premier League – that it was his father, Arkady, who really controlled the club. Ultimately the Premier League had only Gaydamak Jr's word for that, since the club's parent, Miland Development, was registered in the impenetrably secretive British Virgin Islands. Now the Football League, which became the club's new regulator upon their relegation, has been presented with a similar situation.

For though we are told that the Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai is hoping to take over Pompey through PFC Realisations, it is impossible to check, because its sole shareholder is another BVI-registered shell, Sports Holdings (Asia) Ltd. Chainrai himself formerly had a close business relationship with Gaydamak senior. Indeed the £14.5m Chainrai invested in Portsmouth to gain control of the club had effectively been released from Gaydamak's frozen accounts after Chainrai's successful litigation for that sum through the Israeli courts.

Such are the particularities of Portsmouth's troubled history, the intended lack of transparency is most unsatisfactory and surprising, given David Lampitt's involvement as a director of PFC Realisations. After all, Lampitt was previously the Football Association's head of compliance.

Clarke's personal touch

Greg Clarke has invested much personal capital in claiming that under his chairmanship the Football League will guarantee greater transparency of its clubs' ownership structures. He is about to stake a bit more.

For alongside David Lampitt as a director of PFC Realisations, the company hoping to take over Portsmouth, is John Redgate. Only three of the 11 companies on whose boards Redgate, an accountant, has served are still trading – the other eight are in liquidation or have already been dissolved.

But, usefully, two of those companies relate to the pension fund of Cable & Wireless, at which he served as a trustee between 1993 and 2000. That is just the time when Clarke was chief executive of Cable & Wireless Communications, so the warm relations between the two will doubtless ensure transparency will out.

Jordan able to relax

A report into Crystal Palace directors' conduct in the lead-up to the club's insolvency last season has been submitted to the Department of Business, Innovations and Skills, as the old DTI is now known. That is one of the matters detailed in the recently released administrators' report that details events leading up to Steve Parrish's close-season takeover. But Simon Jordan, who as chairman and owner through his Aspiration Holdings investment vehicle would be most accountable for whatever that report contains, has no cause to fear.

A source close to the administration process told Digger yesterday that the report's submission to BIS was only logged in the administrators' documents due to its being a statutory obligation, and not to draw attention to a history of wrongdoing.

Le Tiss is hardly spotless

One of the names raised in relation to the Pakistan spot-fixing allegations is that of Matt Le Tissier. In case anyone had forgotten, Le Tissier is the only high-profile footballer to have admitted in his biography to having engaged in spot-fixing as a player. Hardly a role model of integrity, then.

So if you were the marketing manager in charge of launching the new Football League sponsorship for Coral, its betting and gaming partner, who would you choose as an ambassador? Le Tissier? No, nor would Digger. But that hasn't put Coral off. "In that context it's certainly a bit, er, quirky," said a spokesman. "And timing wise, it's not ideal."

Sutcliffe's foresight may yet be rewarded

As the Pakistan cricket scandal demonstrates, one of the most astute foresights of the former sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, was to commission the Rick Parry report into the integrity of sports betting. Sutcliffe recognised that a crisis might be round the corner and chose to pre-empt it by seeking a review of the industry's practices.

But his vision came too late: three months after Parry made his recommendations, Sutcliffe was out of office and his successor, Hugh Robertson, has not hitherto placed it at the top of his list of priorities. Those involved in fighting corruption in sport hope that may now change, since the scandal-hit sport is cricket, which Robertson holds most dear.

But with change would come a tough decision for the minister and the Treasury. As Brian Pomeroy, the Gambling Commission's chairman, admitted in a February letter to Sutcliffe, the betting industry regulator is woefully under-resourced. "The Commission could make a start within our existing budget," he wrote. "Nevertheless, the flow of intelligence to be analysed and managed proactively and cases that merit criminal investigation… may increase to the point at which extra resource is required." We can assume that point is now.

• Pannu says 'no Mourinho' remark was taken out of context
• Manager's talks over signing a new contract still dragging on

Peter Pannu, Birmingham City's vice-chairman, was forced into an embarrassing climbdown today when he claimed that he enjoyed a "phenomenal" relationship with Alex McLeish, 24 hours after accusing the club's manager of making unreasonable contract demands and "not being totally tried and tested yet".

Pannu, who had also suggested in his earlier remarks that McLeish was "no [José] Mourinho", said that he had never intended to criticise the Scot and went on to claim that the two parties were close to agreeing a new contract that could be in place by next week. That stance contrasted sharply with the picture that Pannu had painted beforehand, when he claimed McLeish was "asking for a very large amount of money which I was not prepared to meet".

McLeish, who led Birmingham to their highest top-flight finish in 51 years last season, when the club secured ninth place in the Premier League after winning promotion 12 months earlier, was disappointed with Pannu's initial comments and it remains to be seen whether there is any lasting damage to their relationship. Pannu was understandably keen to stress that was not the case today as he tried to pick up the pieces from an embarrassing episode.

"This is all nonsense," Pannu said. "We are just perhaps inches away from Alex signing a contract, possibly by next week. Our relationship is phenomenal, we are very strong and close, and I want to dispel this notion that there is anything wrong. In fact, I spoke to Alex about the Mourinho reference and we laughed about it. In the whole context of the interview I did, it would not have had a sting to it. But to take out the extract like that made it look worse than it was.

"Mourinho came up because I mentioned that the agent who made the initial approach to me about Alex and his contract represents Mourinho. Nothing was meant as a slight to Alex in the context of the conversation I had."

Pannu claimed that the only stumbling block on McLeish's contract negotiations, which started last season and have been painfully slow, was "not pay-related" and expressed his confidence that an agreement will be reached "very soon". McLeish, who was reluctant to be drawn on Pannu's original comments when he was asked about them at a press conference yesterday, would not comment further today other than to add: "We are close to a new contract, but negotiations are still ongoing."

• Arsenal not on Mourinho's list of potential winners
• Real manager says he is no longer 'obsessed' by winning titles

José Mourinho does not believe Arsenal are capable of winning the Champions League this season. The Real Madrid coach, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, said he thought only seven clubs have a chance of winning European football's premier competition – and Arsène Wenger's team were not among them.

He listed his own side, Real Madrid, among the potential winners along with Barcelona, Internazionale, Milan, Chelsea, Manchester United and last season's runners-up Bayern Munich. "One of these will win," he said. "There could be a surprise like Lyon in the semi-finals last season, maybe Roma, Arsenal, Tottenham or Benfica but it's difficult."

The former Chelsea manager also said he is no longer "obsessed" with winning titles, which might be a good thing since his Real Madrid side could be hard-pressed to challenge Barcelona for the Liga title.

Real opened with a scoreless draw at Mallorca in Mourinho's Spanish league debut last weekend, while the title favourites Barcelona started with a 3-0 win at Racing Santander.

"Barça are a finished product. They could add a name or an idea but that's just perfecting things. At Real there's a feeling of uncertainty and doubts about continuity. In just a few years there have been [Fabio] Capello, [Bernd] Schuster, [Juande] Ramos, [Manuel] Pellegrini and me. You need stability," he said.

"Luckily I'm not obsessed by titles now," the Portuguese coach added. "If I did, I would have stayed at Inter with six competitions available. I would have won three and my career would have been gratified. In Spain I have three competitions and in two of them the Spanish league and the Copa del Rey Barça are the team to beat."

Mourinho added that he still speaks with the Inter president Massimo Moratti weekly, despite bidding the Italian club a teary goodbye after leading it to a treble last season, capped by Inter's first European Cup in 45 years. "We're friends," Mourinho said. "I'm part of his history and he's part of mine."

Also featuring college football classics, a very risky overtaking manoeuvre and a driver on his fag break

1) The college football season kicks off tonight. The Oregon Ducks will be hoping their opener goes better than last season when running-back LeGarrette Blount decided to lay out an opponent with a straight right. Blount narrowly escaped a season-long ban, issued a full apology and was later drafted by the Tennessee Titans, where he has not entirely avoided further fisticuffs. While we are at it here are a few classics from last season: Fresno State 53-52 Illinois, Arizona 41-44 Oregon and Central Michigan 27-26 Michigan State.

2) The Luton Town manager Richard Money took exception to fans abusing his players at the weekend and was forced into a Blount-style apology. Harry Redknapp apologises to no man though. He just tells them to eff off (SyCo and MoxyCoxy spotted this about five minutes after we had seen it, so they shall have their spotters' badges).

3) Still, Harry was not quite as exposed by that question as Neymar was by this tackle.

4) Is this the riskiest overtaking manoeuvre of all time?

5) Roger Federer pulled off this ludicrous between-the-legs winner at last year's US Open. He did it again at Flushing Meadows this week, only this time the shot was better.

6) There has been some disillusion on this blog in the past few weeks about the prevalence of faked videos. One of the most infamous is the clip in which Kobe Bryant jumps a speeding car (over 4m views and counting). But could it be done in real life?.

Our favourites from last week's blog

1) Ways to entertain yourself when the safety car comes on.

2) The Chicago Bears showed that it is not just (British) football teams who can produce awful pop music. But for the most gut-wrenchingly terrible team song of all time, you have to delve into the world of the Glasgow Diamonds.

3) If you are going to put your money on a greyhound, put it on a greyhound smart enough to cheat.

4) What Wayne Rooney would have liked to do to Cristiano Ronaldo after the winking incident at the 2006 World Cup.

5) When showboating goes well.

6) Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham lands the first double backflip in a wheelchair. You wouldn't eat those Skittles he chucked on the floor, mind.

Spotters' badges OhMonsieur, dontgetmeimasnowman, mattiogo, rowingrob, escartin, moxycoxy, TheCorporal, stubnitz.

Click to enlarge, and debate the strip below the line. Keith Hackett's verdict appears in Sunday's Observer and here from Monday.

Competition: win an official club shirt of your choice

For a chance to win a club shirt from the range at Kitbag.com send us your questions for You are the Ref to you.are.the.ref@observer.co.uk. The best scenario used in the new Observer YATR strip each Sunday wins a shirt of your choice from Kitbag. Terms & conditions apply.

For more on the fifty year history of You Are The Ref, click here.

You could have a top day out at the races with VIP tickets to the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup

London Irish's full-back is set to put his miserable injury-ravaged season behind him

Of all the players awaiting the new rugby season none is more motivated than Delon Armitage. "My goal is to get that England No15 shirt back," he says flatly, before revealing how low his confidence sank when his form evaporated last winter. Starting with London Irish's opening game against Saracens in front of 70,000-plus supporters at Twickenham this Saturday, he wants to remind people just how good he can be.

If ever there was an illustration of the dangers of playing when not fully match fit, Armitage is the living proof. A dislocated shoulder, the first serious injury of his career, cost him his England place last autumn and made him reconsider what had previously come naturally. It has taken a summer of hard training and a fresh mental attitude to restore the belief he can reclaim the full-back position now occupied by Northampton's Ben Foden.

The seeds of recovery were sown on the way home from England's summer tour of Australia and New Zealand as Armitage reflected on his turbulent year. "I've had a bit of flak from people saying I shouldn't have made this season's elite player squad but I thought my form was coming back towards the end of the tour. By the final game against the Maori I was starting to enjoy myself again. The year before I just felt untouchable. I'm trying to get back into that sort of mindset."

His problem, he realised, was two-fold: a subconscious fear of further injury and a mind cluttered with low-risk instructions. "It's especially hard when you injure your shoulder. You're conscious of it... if there's a 50-50 challenge you pull out. I know now that my shoulder's ready. I've trained well, my fitness is up there and I'm raring to go again. For me, in the end, it was all about going back to basics and enjoying myself. My mindset now is that it's just a game. Last season I was taking it really seriously ... before I'd just go out and play. In the end it's a simple game. I never used to worry about being in the England squad. I was just happy to be playing."

Armitage's free-running qualities should also suit the revival of attack-minded rugby, rather than the dreary kick-chase stuff of last season which made him feel like "a robot". He is also realistic enough to realise something special will be required to dislodge Foden following England's summer Test win in Sydney, in which he featured as a late replacement. "Last season wasn't the best for me and I was quite lucky to get on the tour given the way I was playing. As much as it hurts me to say it, Foden deserves [the shirt]. He has played really well for Northampton for the past two years. I know I'm going to have to work really hard to get my place back but that is my goal this season. It starts this weekend with the first game."

Toby Booth, the Exiles's club coach, is among those who sense Armitage, capped 16 times by England, will come good again. "He's looked very good in pre-season. What people don't realise is that Delon had never been injured for a long period in his life. His fight to find form coincided with us having to play him and England selecting him when under-cooked. As a result he struggled. It's about getting your confidence back and doing the things that got you up there in the first place."

If the 26-year-old Armitage needs any further motivation he need only look around him. For the first time there are three Armitage brothers in the senior squad, with 18-year-old Guy joining his elder siblings. "I feel like I'm babysitting again," jokes Armitage senior, now a father of two. "Guy's a big boy – 100kg and 6ft 4in – and very skilful so hopefully he can kick on. We look after each other and make sure the young one doesn't do the stuff I did when I was 18."

As for Irish's prospects, steering clear of the injuries which afflicted them last time would help. "I still think we've got the squad to compete with the best and win Premierships," says Armitage. "We know we're good enough to win the title and we need to start with a bang." He no longer sounds like a man lacking in confidence.

• England bowler to have surgery next week
• 'I'm devastated but determined to overcome this setback'

The England fast bowler, Graham Onions, faces a further nine-month lay-off after the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that he will undergo surgery next week in a bid to overcome the back injury that has ruled him out of this winter's Ashes series.

Attempts by England's medical staff to solve Onions's long-standing stress fracture without an operation have proved unsuccessful. Onions will undergo surgery next Monday and cannot realistically expect to return until midway through next summer. He first experienced discomfort in the nets on England's tour of Bangladesh and left the tour without playing a game.

The ECB's chief medical officer, Dr Nick Peirce, said: "Graham has been suffering from ongoing discomfort due to stress fractures on both sides of his back. We have thoroughly exhausted all avenues of conservative treatment and rehabilitation with surgery very much seen as a last resort. Unfortunately, Graham has not responded to these forms of treatment and as a result we have no option left but to undertake a course of treatment involving surgery.

"The surgery Graham faces is a relatively significant operation and his rehabilitation will see him ruled out of all cricket for approximately up to nine months. His rehabilitation will be overseen and carried out by the ECB medical team in conjunction with the medical staff at Durham."

England have long accepted that they will contest the Ashes without Onions. They discounted him from their plans three months ago, but the player himself remained committed to proving his fitness. Only now has realisation dawned as to the full extent of his injury.

"I'm shattered to have been ruled out of the Ashes with the prospect of a lengthy recovery period," he said. "After experiencing the euphoria of being part of an Ashes winning England team last year I was determined to get myself fit for selection ahead of this winter's tour of Australia. Unfortunately, that's not to be and even though we have tried every possible form of treatment, surgery is the only option left.

"While I'm devastated to be facing such a long lay-off from cricket I'm determined to overcome this setback and make sure I get back bowling again next year and work my way back into the England calculations."

• North Queensland Cowboys forward would be major coup
• Hull KR unable to persuade Radford to leave rivals Hull FC

Hull KR have failed to persuade Lee Radford to cross the city next season, but are close to announcing one of the biggest overseas signings in Super League history. Willie Mason, the hulking North Queensland Cowboys forward who has long been established as one of the most colourful personalities in the Australian game, is thought to have agreed terms to play at Craven Park next season, with an announcement expected in the next few days.

Mason, a 30-year-old who won 23 Test caps for Australia, is best known in this country for flooring Stuart Fielden during the 2006 Tri-Nations series – and for the expletive-laden appearance at the disciplinary hearing that followed. He has always been keen to play in England and Hull KR were pushing at an open door with two of his former Sydney Roosters team-mates, Mark O'Meley and Craig Fitzgibbon, already settled in the city after a season with Hull FC.

Mason is now almost certain to make his Rovers debut against them as a Hull derby will be included in the opening round of fixtures at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff next February. Radford will line up alongside O'Meley and Fitzgibbon in black and white, rather than in red and white with Mason, after signing a new two-year contract with Hull that will also involve coaching the club's under-15 team.

Radford, 31, was Hull's captain when they lost at Wembley in the 2008 Challenge Cup final but was replaced this season by Sean Long, who will return to their team for Saturday's home game against Leeds after two months out with an elbow injury. Long is set to resume his half-back partnership with another former international, Richard Horne, who is also back in the squad for a game that Hull must win to secure a place in the top four.

Wigan will be presented with the League Leaders' Shield as reward for finishing top of the table after Friday's home game against Bradford, when their Australian wing Pat Richards needs 15 points to break Andy Farrell's Super League record of 388 in a season. But the game at The Stoop is arguably more significant, with last weekend's Challenge Cup winners Warrington needing a convincing win to boost their points difference as they battle with St Helens for home advantage in the first round of next weekend's play-offs – and Quins expected to make an announcement that will ease fears over their future.

The game will be a celebration of 30 unbroken years of professional rugby league in London since Fulham played their first game at Craven Cottage in September 1980, and Harlequins will field a record number of seven players who have come through their own junior ranks after calling up Joe Ridley, a 19-year-old from Colchester, to replace the injured Danny Orr. It will also be Brian McDermott's last game as the Harlequins coach before he returns to Leeds to work with Brian McClennan next season.

Sheffield Eagles removed Leigh's last chance of applying for a Super League licence in 2012 by snatching a 26-24 win in the first game of the Championship play-offs, and the Catalans Dragons have signed Ben Farrar, a 23-year-old utility back from Manly, as they continue to rebuild for 2011.

The champion jockey was unplaced on two rides as he came back from a three-week absence

No one expected Ryan Moore to celebrate his return to race-riding after three weeks on the sidelines by high-fiving a long line of punters as he left the weighing room but, even by his standards, his afternoon here was distinctly low-key. The one bright moment came as he walked into the paddock for his first ride of the day.

"Don't smile, Ryan," Frankie Dettori called out breezily as they trotted past the press corps and, just for once, the champion jockey found it difficult to do anything but.

For any punters still clinging forlornly to short-priced bets on Moore for the jockeys' title, though, this was the day when all hope seemed to evaporate. Moore's two rides on the card were both unfancied in the market and both failed to trouble the judge.

Caraboss, an 8-1 chance owned by the Queen, did at least make it into fourth place in division two of the fillies' maiden, but Tale Untold, at 20-1, was only fifth of eight in the Dick Poole Fillies' Stakes half an hour later.

Despite his three previous titles, the championship has never been an over- riding priority for Moore, who was struggling to keep up with Paul Hanagan even before he suffered a wrist injury in a post-race fall at Windsor on 9 August.

With his services likely to be required in America for the Breeders' Cup in the final week of the turf season, he would need to build a secure lead by the end of October and, even if Sir Michael Stoute's stable explodes into form, just bridging the 33-winner gap to Hanagan would be an immense task.

But Caraboss did not hint at a sudden spate of winners from Freemason Lodge – indeed Stoute, for all the lucrative heroics of Workforce and Harbinger, has saddled saddled just 17 winners since the end of June.

Moore, who spoke briefly to reporters afterwards, has apparently accepted that his title race is run. "It appears that way," he said. "It's not that I don't rate championships, I wouldn't say that, but I guess I'll just keep doing what I usually do."

Moore tried to reduce the swelling on his injured wrist and accelerate his recovery using a cryogenic chamber at a specialist centre in Tring.

"I was down in Tring for about 10 days," he said. "The treatment helps to keep your fitness up because you do a bit of training afterwards and it gives you a bit of a boost, so it's easier to work after you've had the treatment. I've been riding out for the last week and a half now. It's good to be back."

Moore would not be drawn, though, on who he expects to succeed him as champion in what looks like a straight race between Hanagan and Richard Hughes. "It's two months away," he said, "and anything can happen in racing."

It felt like high summer at Salisbury, but the results did not match the fine weather, with 33-1 chances successful in both divisions of the maiden and Margot Did, the hot favourite for the Dick Poole, edged out by a nose and a neck behind Brevity in a race that never quite unfolded as Hayley Turner, Margot Did's rider, would have liked.

Dettori later failed to deliver on an even-money chance as Khawlah, whose relatives include Sea The Stars, started slowly and finished fast but too late in division two of the maiden.

Both Shim Sham and Brevity are trained by Brian Meehan, who could be a man to follow closely over the next few weeks. "The spring was tough, but they're coming through now," Meehan said. "I think my two-year-olds are very special. I thought we had a hell of a bunch last year but they're even better this year."

• Locog favours a break from tradition of a main stadium finish
• No final decision has been made as organisers ponder options

The route for the marathon at the London 2012 Olympic Games is likely to start and finish at the Mall in a departure from tradition, though a final decision has yet to be made.

Several different courses are under consideration and it is hoped the consultation process will be completed by the end of the month.

However, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) is understood to have a strong preference for the proposal that uses the Mall as its centrepiece.

Running from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square and featuring Admiralty Arch, Locog believes the ceremonial route will provide the marathon with an iconic backdrop.

Traditionally, the event has finished at the Games' main stadium and the original plan plotted a path from Tower Bridge to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London. But Locog is eager to incorporate as many London landmarks as possible and favour the Mall, which is also the finish line for the annual London Marathon.

The Locog director of venues and infrastructure, James Bulley, however, today stressed discussions over the course are still ongoing. "No final decision over the marathon has been made at this point," he said. "We're still working with the international federation and various technical bodies to understand exactly what will be best for London 2012.

"A number of different routes and scenarios are being examined at the moment. We have some preferred scenarios and we're working those through with the international federations.

"We have to strike a balance between factors such as the implications for traffic and road closures on the day and getting people around to other events. We also want to use as many iconic locations in the route as possible and, of course, it has to work well for all the athletes.

"The fact it traditionally finishes at the stadium is a consideration. The stadium has been designed to accommodate it and finishing there remains one of the options."

• American claims victory after 198.8km
• Briton third after mistiming sprint

Mark Cavendish was edged into third place as Tyler Farrar won the sprint finish in yesterday's fifth stage of the Vuelta a España.

Farrar held off Koldo Fernández and Cavendish in a bunch sprint to claim victory in the 198.8km stage from Guadix to Lorca.

Cavendish had been leading but, having seemingly mistimed his sprint, was pipped by Farrar on the line as the riders went through the streets of Lorca.

Pierre Rolland, José Vicente Toribio, Arnaud Labbe and David Gutiérrez had made a breakaway as they attempted to put enough distance between themselves and the peloton to hold off the specialist sprinters. But their lead was gradually eroded, allowing Farrar through to claim the stage.

In the general classification Philippe Gilbert held on to the red jersey with a lead of 10 seconds from Igor Anton and Joaquin Rodríguez.

Today's stage traverses the 151km between Caravaca de Cruz and Murcia.

• LMA writes formal offer of assistance to England manager
• Ferguson, Wenger and Hodgson could be part of think-tank

Several Premier League managers have offered to help Fabio Capello rebuild the England set in the wake of this summer's disastrous World Cup campaign.

According the chief executive of the League managers' Association, Richard Bevan, the coaches – including Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Roy Hodgson – have written a letter to Capello suggesting the England manager use the vast knowledge and experience of such leading figures in the English game to help improve the national team.

Although Capello has been in informal contact with Premier League managers in the past, this constitutes a formal offer of assistance, which the Football Association has acknowledged is "in the system" at their Wembley headquarters.

"We want to work closely with England," Bevan told the Telegraph. "There were mistakes made in the World Cup but the feedback I've had from managers is 'how do we help the England manager?' We can help Fabio by ensuring he has access to a think tank."

One aspect of the help being suggested is how best to develop Capello's eventual successor.

The very nature of tabloid stings means it is tough to make the evidence stick

The News of the World's story about the involvement of members of the Pakistan cricket team in spot-fixing is the most recent in a long line of the newspaper's exclusives about prominent sports stars alleging criminal activity.

This latest story follows four of the most remarkable coups in the world of sport. Two of these – the supposed extortion of the England football captain David Beckham by a gang said to be plotting to kidnap his wife and transcripts of conversations with the jockey Kieren Fallon said to implicate him in deliberately losing a race – ended up in court before both cases were thrown out. And now, lawyers feel, last Sunday's investigation into the activities of Mazhar Majeed, and his suggestions that Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt had conspired with him to bowl deliberate no-balls during the fourth Test at Lord's, is also unlikely to end in criminal charges for the players.

Neill Blundell, head of the fraud group at law firm Eversheds, said: "What they often have difficulty doing is evidentially linking what is going on with the betting. If all you've got is one person saying certain things, it can be very difficult to link that behaviour to what is going on the pitch, even if it seems logical to do so."

At the heart of all the cases lies the legal problems around the notion of entrapment. In 1999 the England rugby union captain Lawrence Dallaglio was forced to resign after appearing to admit to being a drug dealer during his youth but no police action was taken against him. And this year's story alleging snooker's world No1, John Higgins, would lose frames in a purported new tournament will be addressed at a tribunal next week.

1 The Lawrence Dallaglio drug claims scandal

On 23 May 1999 the News of the World published a story in which Dallaglio told two undercover reporters, who were entertaining him under the guise of Gillette executives offering a £500,000 sponsorship deal, that he had been a drug dealer when he had been aged "18 or 19".

The newspaper published transcripts from the conversation, with the England back-rower saying: "I used to drive from one end of London to the other with five or six ounces of it [cocaine]. That's how I used to make money before I took up rugby."

There were other revelations, but the headline story was Dallaglio's account of "an all-day party" he participated in to celebrate the British and Irish Lions series victory on the 1997 South Africa tour. He said that he and two other players "dropped an E and then a couple of wraps of coke and we celebrated winning the Test series. We got absolutely mullered."

Dallaglio resigned the captaincy the following day after a three-hour meeting with the Rugby Football Union but said he "categorically denied" the principal feature of the story that he had dealt in drugs. "I lied to these people," he said. "I made up stories to impress these people. A lot of it was fabrication and I'm sure a lot of what they said was fabrication."

A three-month investigation by the RFU ended with a disrepute charge and another for taking drugs during the Lions tour. The drugs charge was dropped but he was fined £15,000 and made to pay costs of £10,000 after admitting he had initially lied about his presence at a party in Johannesburg during the 1997 tour. The then England head coach, Clive Woodward, said the former captain had been guilty of nothing more than "naivety, stupidity and foolishness" and had behaved as a "complete prat". No criminal charges were made.

2 The Victoria Beckham kidnap plot

On 3 November 2002, the day after five arrests had been made following an undercover investigation, the front page was devoted to a story by Mazher Mahmood alleging a criminal conspiracy to kidnap Victoria Beckham had been foiled by the newspaper. The News of the World said one of its reporters had infiltrated the gang then tipped off the Metropolitan police. It quoted one of the conspirators saying: "If the kids are with her, it's even better. We ask David Beckham for £5m. It's 100% he pays. But if something happens and he don't pay, Victoria is going to die."

A reporter revealed his role was to be the getaway driver for the ambush outside the Beckhams' Hertfordshire home, during which Victoria would be sedated and taken to a house in Brixton, where she would be held until the ransom was paid.

Scotland Yard's serious and organised crime command (SO7) questioned the five men over allegations of conspiracy to kidnap and theft. Later that month they were charged with theft and conspiracy to rob and the four Romanians and one Kosovan Albanian were charged with conspiracy to kidnap the following February.

In June 2003 at a hearing at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court the case against the accused was thrown out by the judge, when it emerged that the News of the World had paid £10,000 to the prosecution's key witness, the convicted criminal, Florim Gashi, who had been involved with the accused from the start.

The judge reported the newspaper to the attorney general "to consider the temptations that money being offered in return for stories concerning celebrities give rise to" but no action was taken. The Press Complaints Commission found that the no rules had been broken and that the story had been in the public interest.

3 The Kieren Fallon race-fixing case

On 7 March 2004, in a story the paper called "the sports scandal of the decade", the six-times champion jockey was said to have told its undercover team led by Mazher Mahmood that he would lose a race at Lingfield on 2 March and named the horse that would win. In that race Fallon's horse Ballinger Ridge was ahead by a huge margin but slowed near the winning post and was beaten by Rye at the line.

Fallon had been recorded the weekend before the race telling reporters posing as a Middle-Eastern gambling syndicate: "I'm actually down as the favourite. It's not very good. The horse of Jamie Osborne's is going to win. A horse called Rye."

Fallon's solicitor said his client had merely offered advice to people he had been led to believe were members of the public. "As many jockeys do on TV on a daily basis, he gave them his views as to the chances of horses he was riding. He received no money for this and the way he rode the horses was in no way influenced by the information he had imparted."

He was due to appear before a Jockey Club inquiry that autumn to account for the story but he was arrested on 1 September along with two jockeys and three others as part of a police investigation into the perversion of scores of races. Fallon was charged in 2006 and the case began in October 2007 with him accused by the prosecution of "systematic corruption to protect the interests of a fraudulent betting syndicate". The Ballinger Ridge ride was a key part of the prosecution's case.

Two months after the prosecution case opened, Mr Justice Forbes ruled that there was no case to answer. He said the evidence was characterised by "very significant limitations and shortcomings".

4 The John Higgins video over thrown frames

On 2 May 2010 Mazher Mahmood reported that the 2009 world snooker champion John Higgins had been captured on video allegedly agreeing to lose frames in a World Snooker Series that was supposedly to be organised by the team he had met. The meeting took place in Kiev days after the world No1 had been knocked out of the 2010 World Championship. The sum of €300,000 was brought up as the fee for his complicity and he is reported to have discussed with his agent, Pat Mooney, the mechanics of payment.

"I've got a property in Spain," he is alleged to have said. "I'm thinking to myself … is there any way … if you get a small mortgage or something on the property and you can pay it off. Would they look me out if you paid it off in a lump sum?"

Following the publication of the story, Barry Hearn, the chairman of snooker's governing body, announced Higgins' suspension from the sport. Mooney resigned from the WPBSA board. Higgins issued a statement on the same day. "I didn't know if this was the Russian mafia or who we were dealing with," he said. "At that stage I felt the best course of action was just to play along with these guys and get out of Russia."

The journalist Nick Harris on his website sportingintelligence.com has cast serious doubts over the video evidence, questioning its editing and that some words attributed to Higgins were not actually said by him on the footage. The WPBSA investigation headed by David Douglas was completed in July and a tribunal hearing under the aegis of an independent dispute resolution broker, Sport Resolutions UK, is due to be heard next week.

With criminal convictions looking increasingly unlikely, the game's corruption unit will pick up the investigation into the Pakistan betting scandal

All day it bubbled up until finally it boiled over. Claim, counterclaim, allegation, denial, counter-accusation. It followed a familiar pattern. A deal was brokered but reluctantly on the part of Pakistan. Had they left themselves room for some clever point-scoring manoeuvring at a later date? Finally, late last night, in what looks like a fit of exasperation, the International Cricket Council, so often regarded as toothless, fitted its shiny choppers, flexed some muscle and intervened. Enough, it was saying, was enough. Never mind all that had gone before; it was irrelevant. The Pakistan three, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, were to be suspended forthwith from all cricket under the ICC anti-corruption code of practice pending further investigation into various allegations.

Until the ICC intervention, the outcome had been pretty much what we all expected. Butt, Asif and Amir would take no further part in the tour and were to be replaced. The reasonings may sound semantic but they are rooted in the legalities of the matter. Thus, they had not been suspended, because that would carry the implication of a pre-judgment of guilt in an investigation that is still continuing. Nor had they been dropped, for that, presumably, would be challengeable in court given the status of the three players within the Pakistan side.

Instead, they had been encouraged to withdraw, on the grounds that after the events of the past few days, they would neither be in a fit state mentally nor physically prepared for the forthcoming series of Twenty20 and one-day internationals.

Pakistan, or more realistically their lawyers, would have fought tooth and claw for the status quo, but that was never an option. For the series to go ahead with any shred of integrity in the public eye (never mind that the cases have yet to be proven), it was non-negotiable that Butt, Asif and Amir should not be part of the team, however it was achieved.

Had Pakistan been insistent, the England and Wales Cricket Board would almost certainly have pulled the plug on the series and taken a massive financial hit in the process, knowing that the England cricketers would have taken advice from their players' association as to whether it was appropriate for them to withdraw their labour in any case. Given the manner in which the ECB has worked hard to facilitate the continuation of Pakistan's international commitments despite their being unable to stage matches in their own country, it is hard to see how the Pakistan Cricket Board could do other than cede the ground.

What happens to the three Pakistan cricketers under investigation is another matter. On the face of it, the News of the World appeared to have managed a perfect sting, where the subject Mazhar Majeed seemed able to satisfy that paper of his ability to manipulate events within matches. The no-balls at Lord's, apparently to order, appeared to verify this. However, anyone who has had a cursory look at the 2005 Gambling Act will understand the difficulty in converting allegations into convictions, given the demand for hard evidence that, say, the bowling of such no-balls is directly associated with the sort of criminal gambling activities that are also alleged. There has to be a paper trail.

It may well be argued, for example, that Majeed, for whatever purpose, has apparently been demonstrating his capacity to control some players, this the man, do not forget, who suggested he was able to wake a young international cricket star, and call him a "fucker" just to demonstrate that he can. Allegations of match-rigging in Sydney are on shaky ground, too: not too hard to brag about something that has already happened, to try to prove a point. This is not necessarily to pass judgment either way on the News of the World case, which looked compelling enough as far as it went, but merely to point out the challenges facing any attempted prosecution. In printing their exclusive, incidentally, the News of the World appear to have spiked the guns of an unconnected long term investigation into Majeed by Revenue & Customs.

So those hoping for criminal convictions look likely to be disappointed. These are a rarity in sport, despite some recent high-profile cases involving, for example, snooker and horse racing. These are a rarity in sport, despite some recent high profile cases involving, for example, snooker and horse racing.

My guess is that if they have any further evidence, any punishment is unlikely to be of the extreme one-size-fits-all kind advocated by many. It is instructive to have a look at section 142 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which addresses the principles of sentencing, for while this may not be dealing with proven criminality it holds good just the same. It says in its preamble: "Any court dealing with an offender in respect of his offence must have regard to the following purposes of sentencing." It then outlines punishment; deterrence; reformation and rehabilitation; protection; and retribution. Thus, even if they were able to establish a case, which is not clear at the moment, the age, inexperience and malleability of Amir might and should be set aside previous behaviour or the position of authority held by Butt. There is nothing straightforward or clear cut about any of this.

• Beckham hopes to face Columbus Crew on 11 September
• Midfielder almost recovered from achilles tendon injury

David Beckham hopes to make his return to action in LA Galaxy's match against Columbus Crew on 11 September, the midfielder said today.

Beckham has been on the sidelines since March when he suffered an achilles tendon injury, while playing on loan for Milan, that cost him a place in the England squad at the World Cup in South Africa.

"The doctors' original date was 1 October but I always kind of said I want to be ready before then," he said.

"I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully will play in part of the game here against Columbus. I'll be on the bench, and hopefully I'll get on the field for 15-20 minutes. That's what I'm looking at."

Beckham took part in his first full training session with the club on 11 August.

"At the moment, you have good days and you have bad days," said Beckham. "You wake up with a lot more pain in your body when you're in preseason. I have to do it because I need to get as close to match fitness as possible.

"It's a bit difficult because when you don't play in games; that's where you get the real fitness from. But I'm doing what I can in the gym and what I can on the field, just trying to get strength back in my leg.

"It kind of kicks you up the backside when you realise you can't do certain things. Working out was something I've done for the last 25 years, and to not being able to do it was tough for me."

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder said he was still tentative in some areas of movement.

"When you do go through a trauma like this, an injury like this, there's always going to be that thing in the back of your mind saying, 'The last time I did that motion was when it actually snapped'. Cutting and turning and pushing off is still difficult for me, but that's going to come in time."

The 35-year-old said he had never considered retirement and added that he had been grumpy at home.

"It's probably better asking my wife that more than me," he said. "Being around the house, not being able to train, not being able to play, I think it's been worse for her than me. It's been a long road."