The match resumes the rivalry that began before the Melbourne final when Hingis described Mauresmo, who is a lesbian, as “half a man.” Mauresmo responded by saying Hingis had been stupid, though the Swiss teenager has since said the media overplayed her comments Hingis won the Australian final 6-2, 6-3. She will take on the world No 1 in a quarter-final there today. The matches would be sell-outs, he added, and therefore there was no possibility of a negative effect on attendance. “We want to know more [about the demands for PPV],” Scudamore said Tomorrow he will.. AMELIE MAURESMO will face Martina Hingis in a repeat of last month’s bristly Australian Open final after cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Karina Habsudova at the Gaz de France Open yesterday. “One of my key responsibilities is to generate money for our clubs,” he added, but said he was not in a position yet to estimate tomorrow’s take-up rate.The Oxford v Sunderland match will be the first in a series of six “screen tests” between now and the end of May. The next will be Second Division Colchester’s home game with Manchester City on 20 March, with the others to be decided.

All six will be in addition to games already scheduled by Sky.The matches shown during the experiment, Scudamore said, had been chosen because the away sides have a large away following unable to attend in person. “Pay-per-view is one of the strands of the ever more complex range of platforms available,” Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Football League said yesterday. He added that the main purpose of tomorrow’s game (which starts at 6pm and will be screened on Sky Box office at pounds 7.95 per subscriber) was not to make money, but to gauge fan opinion and quantify precisely how much such games are worth.
“We have to look at ways of making the most of our TV deals,” Scudamore said. OXFORD UNITED may yet play their part in changing the face of English football. Should the First Division strugglers’ match against Sunderland tomorrow – the first to be screened nationally on a pay-per- view basis – be a success, it could pave the way for an expansion of football on subscription channels, PPV and digital television. “The last time Cheltenham lost in the Trophy,” he said, “I was the winning manager [at Dulwich Hamlet] and the winning goal came from Paul Whitmarsh.” He now plays for Hendon and is the Ryman Premier’s top scorer.The England semi-professional side play their first international of the season next Tuesday when they take on Italy at Church Road, Hayes.. He took charge when Futcher moved on to Southport, but has been hindered this season by serious financial difficulties.

Gresley’s veteran goalkeeper, Stuart Ford, takes caretaker charge of the team.Boston United, who entertain Altrincham in the fifth round of the FA Umbro Trophy tomorrow, have failed to recruit the services of Chris Waddle. The Pilgrims had offered the former Tottenham and England winger, who had a spell with Torquay earlier this season, a short-team deal, but he turned them down this week.”I did think about it,” Waddle admitted, “but I decided I wanted to concentrate on my coaching job with Sheffield Wednesday, which I didn’t want to risk by picking up an injury.”The Ryman League side Hendon have the toughest task in the Trophy – they travel to the holders, Cheltenham Town, who are the bookies’ favourites for both the tournament and the Nationwide Conference title.The north London team are in the last 16 for the first time in 21 years Their manager, Frank Murphy, is travelling west hopefully. The Derbyshire club are one point clear of the relegation zone but have played more matches than three of the four teams below them.
As the No 2 to Paul Futcher, Birtles helped steer Rovers to the Dr Martens title in 1997, when the inadequacies of the Moat Ground denied them promotion. GARRY BIRTLES’ first taste of management came to an abrupt end late on Tuesday evening, when the former Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and England striker was sacked by Gresley Rovers. Birtles and his assistant, Paul Fitzpatrick, were dismissed after a 3- 1 defeat at Grantham made it 14 games without a win in the Dr Martens League Premier Division for Gresley. The fall reflected increased administration expenses and a rise in net transfer spending to pounds 1m.Losses before transfer payments at the Second Division club Preston North End deepened to pounds 84,000 for the six months to last December, compared to a deficit of pounds 63,000 in the same period of 1997.. However, increased costs – including a 28 per cent rise in player salaries – mean that pre-tax profits were broadly flat at pounds 4.1m.By contrast, Sunderland showed the strain of spending a second season outside the Premier League as their pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 November were halved to pounds 275,000.

Progress is being made on the pitch, and on Wednesday Spurs, who are already through to the Worthington Cup final, reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a 2-0 victory over Leeds United in a fifth-round replay.Yesterday, Tottenham reported a 20 per cent increase in revenues to pounds 23.6m for the six months to the end of January, a figure helped by an increase in average attendances after the club finished redeveloping its North Stand. Last year, the club, paid its shareholders a dividend of 0.58p per share, while in the 1996-97 season shareholders received 1p per share in dividends.Tottenham’s finances have come under pressure as the club attempts to rebuild its position as a force in the Premier League while also developing more young players. Already on the transfer list are Paolo Tramezzani, Jose Dominguez and Moussa Saib, the Algerian international who has only played a handful of first-team matches, and others are likely to be sold.The decision to cut the dividend will save Tottenham pounds 586,000 this year. The Spurs chairman, who has a 40.5 per cent shareholding, yesterday announced that the club would not be paying its usual half-year dividend to shareholders. It also plans to pass on its final dividend at the end of its financial year in July.
“Given the level of profits and the requirement for further capital spend on the stadium site and training ground any dividend the Company might propose would more of a gesture than a sensible distribution of income,” Sugar said.The move is part of a money-saving exercise which is also likely to see a number of well-known names leave White Hart Lane as the Tottenham team manager, George Graham, reduces the size of his playing squad from 44 to 36. ALAN SUGAR will miss out on a pounds 237,000 payment from Tottenham Hotspur this year after deciding that the north London club would be better off channelling its cash into developing its stadium and training ground.