The Football Association’s decision to abstain from the FIFA Presidential Vote garnered unwanted criticism in the press at home.

There is no shame in rejecting both candidates and ticking ‘none of the above’. On the contrary, it sends a clear message that FIFA is foul and needs change.

Sepp Blatter had a cheek to visit Togel Singapore Wembley in search of a vote when he had personally done to much to derail England’s 2018 World Cup bid only months earlier, while Mohamed Bin-Hammam is sadly cut from the same cliquey cloth and like Jack ‘Pirate of the Caribbean’ Warner, has also been implicated in ticket touting.

Whatever he says, Bin-Hammam has no real interest in transparency. Can he really enjoy reading the revelations of how his country bought the 2022 World Cup finals in spite of its merciless summer heat, medieval laws and an obvious lack of a football heritage?

Until such time as the FA cleans out FIFA from the inside, which is a pipe-dream given how few allies it has in Zurich, the world’s oldest soccer organisation should proceed with Plan B, a clandestine mustering of rival forces to launch a counter …

Friday saw the start of the fifty-sixth event in this year’s 41st World Series of Poker, and with it fewer opportunities to win gold bracelets and tempting prizes, as only the Main Event now remains on the starter grid.

Events 52 through 56 are all now in various stages of completion, which means 5 more bracelets are yet to be picked up, with top pros like Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey all hoping to win the coveted symbols of success for reasons ranging from side bets to prestige and record collection.

A final table of six had finally been reached Friday night after three days of unrelentingly tough poker in event 52, the $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Six Handed competition, which initially attracted a field of 191 top players.

Only 18 polayers were left at the start of Day 3 Friday afternoon, including aces such as Frank Kassela, Abe Mosseri, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Somerville, Isaac Haxton, Justin Bonomo, Eugene Katchalov and Carlos Mortensen.

A measure of how competitive a field this was can be gained by the fact that in the first level Daniel Negreanu, Abe Mosseri, and Isaac Haxton, along with …