Bohemians escape UEFA sanction

UEFA yesterday dismissed the complaint lodged by Estonian club Levadia Maardu against Bohemians in the wake of Wednesday night's Champions League qualifying tie in Dalymount Park but said it would looking further into the behaviour of the some of the club officials behind the dispute.

Apart from making it clear the Dublin club would face no sanction as a result of the complaint, UEFA European football's governing body made it clear that they would follow up reports concerning the conduct of several club officials, all but one of whom were associated with the visiting club.

"There have been some allegations made against one of our officials too," said Bohemians club secretary Gerry Cuffe yesterday, "but we can state categorically that they will not stand up."

National League, officials, meanwhile, have confirmed that they do not now expect any applications for membership of the first division and that the league will probably be run on the basis of the nine remaining teams following the resignation of St Francis. "A small number of informal approaches have been received," said one official, "but it would be asking a lot of any club to make the step up to league when the new season is only a matter of weeks away."

At today's annual general a.g.m. of the FAI in Cork , meanwhile, the long-running saga of the association's attempt to build its own stadium is likely to be finally laid to rest as the organisation attempts to map out how it is to distribute the funds available to it as a result of its deal with the government.

Delegates from clubs and affiliate bodies from around the country are likely to devote a considerable portion of the time available for debate at the meeting to a discussion of how its own proposal came to be abandoned.

Treasurer-elect John Delaney said he still expected there to be "a fair bit of stick" about Eircom Park as "people are annoyed with one side because there was no consultation and hurt by the other because of the way they feel they were misled."

And Out-going president Pat Quigley said while he accepted Eircom Park would come up a fair bit this morning and that delegates were entitled to discuss the matter again, "I think we have to move on".

Quigley will be replaced today by Milo Corcoran as president of the association, a move scheduled under the rota system employed to fill the position. That switch, combined with the replacement of Bernard O'Byrne by Brendan Menton as chief executive and the confirmation today of Delaney as treasurer, will considerably strengthen the position of the National League within the association.

Meanwhile, Alex Ferguson heads into his last season as Manchester United manager contented and focused after healing a bitter rift with the board.

The club's plc announced yesterday they had agreed a deal with Ferguson to retain him as a consultant on a five-year contract when he retires as manager next May.

He insisted before the final game of last season at Tottenham he would sever all ties with the champions at the end of the coming season. He claimed United had gone back on a promise over a proposed ambassador's role at the club. Now a compromise has been reached.

Everton have agreed a fee of £4.5 million sterling to sign Anderlecht striker Tomasz Radzinski, the club's official website reported yesterday. The Canadian international is due to travel to Goodison Park to undergo a medical and discuss personal terms on Monday.