Week in, week out

WHAT'S IN A NICKNAME?BBC Scotland may have to send their radio presenters on to a crash course of Scottish football after Chick Young and Jane Lewis showed their ignorance during a phone-in programme after yesterday's Old Firm clash.

Lewis read out an e-mail about referees from a listener calling himself Gable Endie and she advised the listening nation that that was an unusual name and therefore must have been made up.

Young corrected her, advising that Gable Endie was the nick-name of a Scottish club. "Which one?" enquired Lewis, with Young advising her it was Arbroath. To which Lewis replied "are they not the Smokies?"

"No', replied Young, "they are called something else."

Radios in the Angus strongholds of Montrose and Arbroath were probably turned off at this point.

EXCUSES, MOI?

You don't need us to tell you that Raymond Domenech is fond of blaming others when things go wrong. The 'Excuse of the Week' item that used to feature on this page was in his honour after the France manager blamed his team's 2006 defeat at Hampden on the slow ball boys.

Well, he's at it again, this time getting his excuses in early ahead of this summer's World Cup finals.

Speaking on French TV yesterday, Domenech suggested that the planned announcement of his successor before the tournament in South Africa might harm his team's chances.

After six years in charge of the national team, Domenech will step down after the World Cup and French football federation head Jean-Pierre Escalettes wants to announce his successor before the event.

Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc and Marseille's Didier Deschamps are the favourites to replace Domenech, who yesterday said: "Some players will say they have been bothered, but only our final result will allow us to say if the team has been hampered."

In other words, if France win the World Cup, Domenech will expect to be treated like a hero, and if they flop then, of course, it will all be the federation's fault. It's true what they say, Everybody Loathes Raymond.

RONALDO WILL BOTTLE IT

Many of the world's best footballer's, including Cristiano Ronaldo, will be wearing shirts made of old plastic bottles at the World Cup.

Nike last week said that shirts for the nine national teams wearing their gear – including Portugal, Brazil, Netherlands and the United States – would be made from polyester recycled from used bottles. The manufacturer explained each shirt would use up to eight plastic bottles retrieved from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites.

Nike, who also admitted last week they intend to stage a marketing blitz at the World Cup to attack rivals Adidas, said a total of 13 million plastic bottles – enough to fill 29 football pitches – were melted to produce polyester yarn and that the strips will be the most environmentally-friendly ever.

"We are equipping athletes with newly designed uniforms that not only look great and deliver performance benefits, but are also made with recycled materials, creating less impact on our environment," said Charlie Denson of Nike.