Of the week

Among other things that have happened in the past week, President Nambaryn Enkhbayar visited the UK and, though not a state visit, still had talks with Tony Blair inside Downing Street. At one point as they shook hands, with a Disraeli bust in the background, Blair's face was one of "so which country is this guy from again?" But once on the steps of Downing Street, once more shaking hands, Blair's visage is transformed into a joyous cackle: "yeah, cool, this is the Mongolian guy." Enkhbayar went to the UK as prime minister in 2003.

So Newcastle drew honourably 0-0 with Chelsea at home, especially since the latter club had added incentive to win with the premiership rival's draw the previous day. So all top four clubs have now visited St. James' Park and none have won in the league and though we only beat Liverpool, that's still an achievement. I don't know how managers cope, all the palpitations in my heart throughout the entire time I'm watching this match or any other close-fought match with Newcastle.

I'm particularly pleased that Italy has finally had its comeuppance in football. People outside Italy thought the four match-fixing clubs got off relatively lightly, so to have their punishments made even more lenient was a hefty insult to justice. Then there was the hooliganism, the over-zealous policing against English fans and the unfit match stadia nationwide. What's more, when Italy hosted the World Cup in 1990, there was a rancorous divide between north and south.
But all that didn't matter compared to Calciopoli. The sight of big clubs getting away with undermining a game was what infuriated me. It was a slap on the hand for all bar Juventus, as evidenced by the fact that they have mostly recovered inside a season. When I read that Poland-Ukraine had won, I punched the air, much in a manner I imagine that the Polish and Ukrainian delegations did that I read. I thought Hungary-Croatia would have been a stronger candidate to challenge Italy, since Poland-Ukraine have a time zone dividing them for starters, but, since Poland and Hungary define themselves as Central Europe, having a bona fide host country from eastern Europe is exciting.
11.37am