Scotland send for Jess as McStay pulls out

Paul McStay, the Celtic captain, was yesterday ruled out of Scotland's squad for Euro 96 - which meant an instant recall for Eoin Jess, the Coventry player who was left out of Craig Brown's squad for two friendlies in the United States later this month.

McStay, with 73 caps for Scotland, is to have an ankle operation in the summer and the 31-year-old midfielder will not be ready for the European Championship, which starts next month.

Jess won the last of his 10 caps when scoring for Scotland against San Marino last November. Now he is line for his first major championships at the age of 25.

"You can't quantify the loss of someone as experienced as McStay, '' Brown said. ''He is possibly one of our players who would be selected by other managers for their squads for Euro 96.''

On the return of Jess, Brown said: "Eoin's attitude was first class when I contacted him and he will join us for training with the rest of the squad at the start of next week.''

Roy Evans, the Liverpool manager, revealed yesterday that he had decided on his team for tomorrow's FA Cup against Manchester United. However, while the Anfield manager will be giving the good and bad news to his players today, he will not announce his line-up until tomorrow. It seems likely that Evans' decision will spell disappointment for Neil Ruddock, Michael Thomas and the record FA Cup goalscorer, Ian Rush.

However, Evans offered some hope for Rush, who leaves the club at the end of the season. ''Ian will take some part, that's for sure," Evans said. "When you've got somebody of his experience, it would be wrong not to use him.

The Bulgarian international Ilian Kiriakov is expected to fly to Aberdeen next week to complete a pounds 400,000 move from Anorthosis Famagusta. The Cypriot club have agreed the fee for the 27-year-old midfielder, who will be a key member of his country's Euro 96 squad.

Ron Noades, the Crystal Palace chairman, yesterday insisted that there can be no increase in Charlton's play-off ticket allocation for next week's match at Selhurst Park. The rivals meet twice in the space of four days in their attempt to reach the First Division final against Stoke or Leicester.

Charlton's supporters' club claims that under League rules they are entitled to a quarter of all seats available compared to the 2,943 allocation.

Noades, however, says that Palace have been handed only 2,889 tickets for Sunday's first leg at The Valley and insisted that increasing the numbers available "would put both clubs in conflict with their local police, who have approved the ticket distribution".

He added: "The competition rules provide for 25 per cent but clubs up and down the country are unable to comply with this because it is overruled by the police on the grounds of safety and segregation.

"This ticket allocation has nothing whatsoever to do with Charlton Athletic or Crystal Palace and is really outside their control.

Fiorentina, the leading Italian club, have been banned from their Florence stadium for one match after fans hurled bottles and coins at the referee in last Sunday's Serie A game against Roma, Italy's football association said yesterday.