FIFA's watchmen in fight for justice with 48 of the £16,400 watches given as gifts to officials for Brazil World Cup set to be donated to charity 

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FIFA’s ethics committee insist they could not recommend life bans for FIFA and UEFA chiefs Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini if they did not treat other investigations just as seriously.

This stance apparently justifies the ludicrous amount of time and effort they put into retrieving 48 Parmigiani watches — each worth £16,400 — given as presents by the Brazilian football confederation to FIFA delegates on the eve of the 2014 World Cup.

The watches will now be donated to the charity streetfootballworld, with the proceeds going to initiatives across Brazil that use football to drive social change.

The 48 Parmigiani watches were given by the Brazil FA in gift bags to FIFA executives and heads of the 32 finalists' associations. FA chairman Greg Dyke had to pay £3,000 in import duty for his

FIFA demanded all watches be returned even when recipients such as the FA’s Greg Dyke, who paid over £3,000 in import duty, made it clear they were selling the gifts to aid charities of their own choice. In Dyke’s case, Breast Cancer Care was in line to benefit.

A FIFA ethics spokesman admitted: ‘It was a symbolic issue. We can’t recommend serious disciplinary measures for Blatter and Platini if the same effort for justice isn’t apparent in other cases we are investigating.

‘It was a very hard piece of work to retrieve the watches, but we were insistent. There was no way out until all the watches were back in Zurich. Even one of the football officials arrested at the Baur au Lac last May was bringing back a watch.

‘We were insistent because no one had the right to redistribute expensive watches that should not have been in their possession.’

The watches will now be donated to the charity streetfootballworld, which will help initiatives across Brazil

By deciding not to take his family to Ghent for the Davis Cup final because of the terrorist threat, Tim Henman has drawn attention to the fact that the BBC have omitted him from their commentary team in Belgium. 

Henman is one of Britain’s greatest ever Davis Cup players and though the Beeb pay him a fortune to commentate at Wimbledon, surely he would improve by working on other events away from SW19 and the world tour finals at the O2. A BBC spokeswoman said Henman was only contracted for two tournaments.

The BBC have omitted Tim Henman from their commentary team for the Davis Cup final in Belgium 

The prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year can’t be faulted for consistency.

The majority of judging panels over 27 years have ignored the most popular books in favour of those considered more worthy. This year was no exception, with the big prize going to The Game of our Lives; The Meaning and Making of English Football by David Goldblatt.

Yet on the short list were two exceptional works, Speed Kings, about the dazzling quartet who made up America’s 1932 Olympic bobsleigh gold medal team, and A Man’s World, about the double life of gay world champion boxer Emile Griffith.

Both are so good they are set to be made into films. The same cannot be said about a cultural study of English football.

David Goldblatt won the award for The Game of our Lives; The Meaning and Making of English Football 

New ICC chairman Shashank Manohar has criticised the ‘bullying’ power grab by India, Australia and England to control world cricket revenues. He also feels it is wrong to allow cricket chiefs from the Big Three to dominate ICC strategy. Manohar intends to put an end to their stranglehold in which haughty ECB president Giles Clarke often plays a dominant role.

New ICC chairman Shashank Manohar has criticised the ‘bullying’ power grab by India

Ram raid hits a snag

The smooth progress towards a London NFL franchise suffered a setback on Thursday. The St Louis Rams are due to play their first NFL match at Twickenham next October, but the operator at the Edward Jones Dome has now pointed out that the team are contracted to play all their home games at that venue.

However, there is a confidence at the London NFL headquarters that the matter can be resolved even without the intervention of St Louis Rams and Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke.

The Rams' Cody Wichmann blocks the Ravens' Timmy Jernigan during St Louis' win in Baltimore

The Football League, who are moving some of their London administrative operation back to their Preston offices, are also relocating their annual Football League awards to the North West next April after 10 years in London. But whether it is staged in the capital or in Manchester, the event has far too many meaningless award categories.