COULTHARD DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION BY F1 TEST CLASH
Scotland's Formula One star David Coulthard is hoping it rains in Northamptonshire next Wednesday because he'd rather be at Scotland's World Cup opener than testing his car at Silverstone.
Explained the McLaren driver: I have a group of friends who are going and they have the tickets, but the problem is we are testing next week. We were due to test at Magny-Cours in France, which would have made it easier, but it has been switched to Silverstone. I have been exploring all the options to see how I can get there, but all I can hope now is that the test that day is called off because of rain.

PAPERS WANT BRAZIL TO STIFFEN UP
Brazilian daily newspaper The Lance has told coach Mario Zagallo to give his players the drug Viagra, which improves sexual performance, in an attempt to stop their squabbles. There has been a wave of press criticism over internal feuding and a string of unconvincing warm-up displays, with one daily, O Globo, saying Zagallo couldn't coach a local side, much less the national team"

ROMANIANS' SILENT PROTEST
Romanian players are refusing to speak to the media during the finals because they claim newspapers and private TV channels are turning fans against them. Captain Gheorghe Hagi is thought to have ordered the move after seeing details of his teammates salaries and World Cup bonus schemes plastered all over the Romanian media, which contrasted them with ordinary wages.
The Galatasaray midfielder told a press conference: "The public does not love us because you journalists write nonsense about us. We deserve a statue for what we have done in the last 10 years for Romania and don't deserve to be criticised." He added that the team would still attend official FIFA press conferences.

HODDLE'S SQUAD ARE THE CREAM
A doctor is warning England players to rub in sun cream before the team's World Cup games because the thin material used in official shirts lets through ultraviolet radiation which can cause sunburn. Dr Andrew Wright, who tested the material for medical journal The Lancet, also warned fans wearing replica kits to take care and said: The last thing I'd want is for England not to win the World Cup because the team got sunburned during training or whatever."

FINALS WILL BE A TURN-OFF FOR USA VIEWERS
American TV experts are predicting low audiences for World Cup football because the nation is gripped by the NBA's basketball finals, which see Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan taking on the Utah Jazz in what is likely to be his last season before retirement.
The final four games of the best-of-seven series are to be played on days when the ABC and ESPN networks are showing France 98 action and pundits say the NBA will be a heavy winner. America's World Cup preliminary games drew an average 2 million viewers each, while the deciding game of the Bulls' semi-final series win against Indiana was seen by a record 61 million viewers.

WORLD CUP QUOTE OF THE DAY
From Nicololae Grigorescu, a Romanian assistant referee during the finals: "If there was one player I would not hesitate sending off it would be me when I played. I was a real creep.