Time to Do Away With Testimonials for Rich Footballers

</B>Word has reached me that a joint testimonial is planned for those Old Trafford stalwarts Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, Phil and Gary. Goodness knows how they must need it having struggled to make ends meet with Manchester United for nigh on 10 years. Happily, the problems they face having to buy and maintain flash houses and eye-catching cars could be made very much more bearable if, as I understand the organisers are privately predicting, the venture reaches the target profit figure of £4m to £6m.

I have nothing against footballers and other sportsmen being highly paid, but isn't there something distasteful about the tired and abused system of sporting benefits? Doubtless, any scheme for the United players would be totally above board. After all, it would be ludicrous to think that they would have anything to do with the sort of sleight of hand that many believe is often associated with fundraising schemes, such as wodges of cash changing hands in brown paper envelopes in deals designed to avoid the attention of the taxman.

It would be good to think that the United four might remember the example last year of the Manchester City and Republic of Ireland star Niall Quinn, who earned a fortune from his testimonial match and promptly gave it away to charity. Sometimes it seems footballers are motivated by greed, but not Quinn, whose gesture was pure class.

</B> Glenn Roeder may have got an inkling of his impending fate had he listened to Alan Green's 6-0-6 phone-in on Radio 5 Live on Saturday night. West Ham fans bombarded the programme with calls slagging off their overrated team of under-achievers after the unhappy Hammers lost 1-0 at Rotherham.

It wasn't the defeat so much as the fact that West Ham's precious luvvies took one look at Millmoor and deemed their changing facilities inadequate, deciding to head back to the team hotel to put on their playing strips in the comfort of their guest rooms. "We got what we deserved. It was abysmal, laughable," said one disgruntled fan as he made his way back to London from South Yorkshire. I could not have put it better.

</B> Whatever fate awaits Jonathan Edwards when he competes in the final triple jump of his wonderful career at the World Championships in Paris tonight, all the tributes that will follow are richly deserved. His athletics achievements have been stunning, but I will remember him as much for his exemplary behaviour in public. He has remained courteous, good humoured and pretty much unchanged by the fame and material rewards that have come from his extraordinary success.

He's set to expand a career in religious broadcasting, but what a final chapter it would be to his sporting life if he could leave the Stade de France after one more night of glory. Here's hoping.