Hold The Back Page: 02/07/2011

A big weekend for David Haye

After a build-up as crass, crude and unbecoming as an episode of Geordie Shore, David Haye will at last be tested tonight. Little in sport entertains like a chasm between words and actions, and Haye has set himself up.

He refused to shake Wladimir Klitschko's hand, compared him to a robot and made Nazi jokes on Twitter. He threatened to "literally decapitate" Klitschko, a deployment of the adverb even less appropriate than most. No surprise, then, that he has dragged with him to Hamburg the anthem-jeerers and war-reminders who would usually be at a football tournament this month. After last summer, they will be desperate to see an Englishman live up to his words.

Germans lead, Russians follow...

Before the Women's World Cup, some of the German team decided that posing in their native equivalent of Playboy might pay off. And so it has; Germany have won both of their Group A games so far. No surprise, then, to see the approach adopted in Moscow. FC Rossiyanka, three-times winners of the Russian women's league, will adopt a new uniform. "We've decided to give our profile a boost by appearing in bikinis," said coach Tatyana Egorova. "We hope it will also improve the numbers of tickets we sell." It probably will. But does she know that Russia has already won the hosting of the next World Cup?

Turquoise keeps England trendy

The trendier football fan spends their summer months concerned not with transfers but with kits. Trawling the internet for the newest images is a rather niche pursuit, although the latest rumoured England goalkeeper's kit may reach a wider audience. No plain shades of yellow, green or navy here. Instead, it is a costume that stretches the possibilities of variations on turquoise. The base is classic turquoise. The torso is made of interlocking crosses of various shades: sky-turquoise, sea-turquoise, pharmacy-logo-turquoise. The sleeves are the same but with smaller crosses. It is certainly original. If the intention was to replicate a kitsch Seventies shower curtain, it must be a success. But Ben Foster and Robert Green avoiding England duty does now make sense.