Chelsea the next Leeds?

I can only pray the Government has signed up to most of this - win, lose or draw, because the IOC won't believe it if the Government merely says, award it to Britain, and then we'll do the business. Because that's what happened over the World Athletics Championships, which, in the most humiliating moment for British sport in decades, had to be taken away and awarded to mighty Helsinki because we broke our word and failed to deliver a stadium. Once bitten, twice shy. We won't be given the benefit of the doubt again. Besides, the IOC will also know the will-they-won't-they saga of Wembley and will doubt whether we mean anything we say in sport.

So the infrastructure developments must begin before the adjudication process properly gets going for us to stand any chance. It must be seen as a national, not a London, bid. London is there because, as the Manchester debacle in a previous failed Olympic bid shows, the IOC won't go anywhere else in this country.

This is not a moment for point-scoring against Ken Livingstone or for Gordon Brown to start insisting the people of London pay for it all.

This is a moment for the vision thing. It's also a sombre moment, because saying we're going to bid is the easy bit. The really hard work starts now - indeed it had better commence immediately for us to have a sporting chance of victory.

Rooney stretched in new tug-of-war

I thought slavery was abolished in the 19th century, but maybe not. Apparently, Sven-Goran Eriksson is entitled to demand Wayne Rooney's presence on Sunday for all the world as if he owned him.

I think Eriksson is wrong to make Rooney the first victim of his crackdown on recalcitrant managers. Everton's concern about Rooney burning himself out is understandable. And David Moyes isn't a troublemaker in the Ferguson-Wenger mould.

Concern about players not having a proper break is not confined to Moyes. Arsenal are up in arms about next month's FIFA Confederations Cup. Players from eight countries, including France, Brazil and Turkey, have to show up in France in early June and stay for the month. Arsenal's pre-season begins on 14 July. Is it really sensible to confine star players to a fortnight's rest? I hardly think so.

Boxing clever at Wembley

All the fuss about Wembley hospitality packages leaves me shaken but not stirred. I mean, what do people expect?

The thing has to be privately financed and the money has to come from somewhere. If big companies are ready to kick in £200,000 a year for a box, good luck to them.

Even if, and it's a big if, the FA can off-load all 20,000 fat-cat packages, that still leaves 70,000 seats for the rest of us. Not bad for making the whole scheme financially viable, is it?

Whipping it up

The chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee has promised underachieving athletes they will no longer be whipped. But I am far from convinced this is a custom that should go out of fashion entirely. It is surely a far more appropriate reward for a loyal servant like Jermain Defoe, after bunging in a transfer request less than a day after his team went down.

Don't get caught out again, David

No big England farewell for David Seaman, then, just an unexpected omission from the squad sheet, never to return. And it's his own fault.

He clung on like grim death until most people became a bit sick of him. But I shall remember him as he was.

That triumphant Euro

96. The penalty save. And seeing him at David Frost's garden party a few days later surrounded by people more famous than him wanting his autograph.

Now, a message to Seaman: Don't let the same happen at Highbury. Why not say the Cup Final is your last game? It would be better than being told sometime in August that there is a new guy and you are toast.