GREGOR VON REZZORI, the central European novelist born in Ukraine in 1914, is best known for his fierce dissection of wartime culture, Memoirs of an Anti-Semite. In that novel, he wrote about a time in which bourgeois values and Gentile supremacism seemed eternal and immutable. Those mummies have come to life again and are cavorting around the Habsburg and Balkan regions he knew, but they are well beyond von Rezzori's present horizon.

May 1971: Arsenal versus Liverpool in a sweltering FA Cup Final. The game is in extra time and Liverpool, worn down by the heat, are perspiring uncontrollably in their long-sleeved nylon shirts. But Arsenal are wearing short-sleeved Umbro cotton jersey shirts which absorb the moisture more effectively. Striker Charlie George blasts the ball into the back of the net from 20 yards. Arsenal win the Cup, and a historic double. A triumph for Arsenal - or for cotton?

PENTLAND has finally walked away from Adidas, reaping a 100 per cent return of pounds 47m on the failed takeover attempt of one of the world's leading sports goods companies.

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BERNARD TAPIE, the chief executive of Adidas, said yesterday that the sportswear group was no longer for sale after Pentland of Britain pulled out of a planned buyout.

HARSH words were exchanged yesterday as Pentland of the UK unexpectedly scrapped a pounds 215m deal to buy Adidas, the German sports goods company, from Bernard Tapie, the French businessman.

ABBOTT Mead Vickers, the advertising agency best known for its Sainsbury's and Yellow Pages campaigns, is shrugging off tough trading conditions to boost its interim dividend 7 per cent to 3p, writes Neil Thapar.

PENTLAND INDUSTRIES is planning a pounds 60m worldwide advertising campaign to boost the market share of Adidas, the sportswear company it acquired for about pounds 230m in July.

SPORTSWEAR companies are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the Barcelona Olympics, which begin on Saturday, and the marketing bonanza that will follow.

IN SPORTING terms, Pentland has inherited a star whose best days are behind him but who is ripe for a comeback.

PENTLAND, the leisure investment group, is acquiring Adidas, the world's second-biggest sportswear company, owned by Bernard Tapie, the controversial French politician and entrepreneur.

SHARES in Hi-Tec Sports collapsed 40 per cent to 106p after the footwear company issued a surprise profits warning.