The Argentina FA are to introduce a spray for the referees to use to mark the spot a free-kick will be taken from and the 10 yards mark where the wall must stand.

I saw the idea earlier in the year, and it's so simple and yet effective.  I don't understand why it hasn't been introduced earlier and by all football associations.  

The mark left by the spray disappears after 30-seconds or so, which means the pitch won't be marked with random lines all over the place.

I can't think of any negatives to this idea.  It'll stop the stpuid encroaching by the defenders, especially when the ball is passed square and short for another player to shoot and the defender somehow manages to end up a yard away from the where the ball is hit.  The only problem is if the free-kick takes longer than 30 seconds to organise, and the line fades away before it's taken…

Is this the most ridiculous red card ever?

Some have said that Ronaldo shouldn't have been sent off for a second yellow when he deliberately handled the ball earlier in the week (I think it was a harsh sending off, but no less than he deserved ).  But this is utterly bonkers!

No reason to post this, other than it's brilliant.

A good few years ago, (18 to be precise) I gave up playing cricket to spend more time on other sports. But for the past couple of years Anna has been trying to get me to take up the bat again.

Her reason is mainly that she likes the idea of coming along - sitting on the veranda of a pavilion, eating sandwiches, sipping wine, and reading.  In other words: coming along, but not to watch the cricket - more to get some peace and quiet and keep an occasional eye out for me.

This got me thinking… I suspect that in the same way most parks have benches on which parents sit to keep an eye on their children at play - so cricket pitches have pavilions. The polite applause, when a cricketer deftly sweeps the ball for four - equates to the "well done dear" when a young child swings from the climbing frame and shouts "Mummy look at me!"

I struggled to keep this "play-pen" view of cricket out of my head last night when I participated in my first game for 18 years. It wasn't easy - I was rubbish and the other boys threw the ball harder, hit it further and made nasty jokes about my shoes and bowling action. I wished Anna was there to give me some support - especially as I scraped my knee which could have done with a magic kiss to make the nastiness go away!

All urinals should have these fitted.

Disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers claims he has been made to "feel like a leper" on his return to the sport having served a ban for failing a drugs test.

The 29-year-old yesterday won his battle to be part of the British team at next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia even though the UK Athletics selection committee were "unanimous in their desire not to select him".

He's a cheat.  A two-year ban wasn't enough. Would we have been happy seeing Ben Johnson representing Canada after his cheating was made public, or Justin Gatlin or Marion Jones representing the US again?  What about the other athletes who are competing for the UK, do they want to be tarnished with the same brush as Chambers?  What about the athletes who aren't competing, because Chambers has their place in the team?  

Do we know that the drug cheating he did didn't have any long-term residual effects that are benefiting him now? Do we really know that he's 'clean'?  Lot of questions, and sadly they'll continue whilst cheats like Chambers are allowed to compete in Athletics.  It's a sport that does its best to prove it's clean - but then rules like this make a mockery of that.

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