Given facing further Wembley woe

Shay Given has been left out of Newcastle United's team to face Bradford City today. Newcastle manager Bobby Robson did not say that Given had been dropped, but one week before Newcastle play Chelsea at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final, the timing is comparable to last season when Given played every cup game only to lose his place to Steve Harper before the final. Harper will play in goal today.

"Shay's had a groin injury all week," said Robson, "he'll be on the bench." Asked if this had implications for Wembley, Robson replied: "I'll have a decision to make. It's difficult to keep two 'keepers happy, I had Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence when I was with England. And Shay and Steve are best friends, they share a room together."

Having missed the first 10 games of the season and then been injured, Given regained his place at Sheffield Wednesday at the end of February and has stayed in the team. He has kept three clean sheets in five matches but with the constant speculation surrounding the goalkeeping position at St James' Park, yesterday's news may well have unsettled Given. Karlheinz Riedle, Fulham's temporary manager, enlisted the vast experience of Roy Evans as his number two yesterday, but Mohamed Al Fayed is looking beyond this pair for the man to fulfil his ambitions.

As Evans rejoined the German he signed for Liverpool three years ago, speculation over the full-time job at Craven Cottage was fuelled by the emergence of a foreign contender.

Jean Tigana, the celebrated former French international midfielder and former Monaco coach, appears to be rivalling Terry Venables and Ruud Gullit as a high-profile candidate to take over this summer with the brief of winning promotion to the Premiership.

Two months after sounding out Eric Cantona, the Fulham hierarchy turned to another Frenchman and Tigana is reportedly in negotiations with the London club.

Unlike Venables and Gullit, however, Tigana would represent a clear gamble given his lack of experience of English football, which might be a distinct disadvantage at First Division level. The 44-year-old Frenchman is currently working as a coach with the French Football Federation.

Evans's role is seen as temporary and Riedle, in charge for the last seven games of the season, is also not considered a major player for the post made vacant by Paul Bracewell's sacking this week.

Meanwhile, England manager Kevin Keegan's selection problems before the summer's European Championship finals have been eased by UEFA making two changes to rules on squad announcements.

After pressure from England, backed by Germany, Spain and Italy, UEFA yesterday agreed to push back the deadline for the selection of the final 22-man squads by 12 hours; the new deadline is noon on June 1st. Originally all 16 finalists had to submit their final 22-man squads by midnight on May 31st - just over two hours after the end of England's friendly against Ukraine at Wembley. England, like other countries playing that night, were concerned that they would not have enough time to assess any injuries sustained in that game.

Everton's manager Walter Smith is resigned to losing his top scorer Kevin Campbell for the rest of the season.