Tomorrow Richard Scudamore will deliver a speech to the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge entitled "Building a global league". It is understood the Premier League's chief executive will not be resurrecting the case for the international round. He should be.

The incidents that featured Ashley Cole and Javier Mascherano baiting referees last season were described yesterday as "the tipping point" for the Football Assocation's new "Respect" programme that will be rolled out from this weekend.

Team captains will be given extra responsibility in stamping out dissent on the pitch next season but the new 'Respect' initiative launched today stopped short of recommending that only skippers could speak to referees during a game.

The head of Asian football has opened the door for the Premier League to stage their controversial 'international round' of fixtures in the region provided they can convince the Football Association to back the idea.

It may be just a friendly tonight at Wembley, but the Football Association have been warned that it faces the mother of all battles to defeat its American counterparts when it comes to winning the 2018 World Cup bid. The United States' top football officials have also hinted that England's game against Trinidad & Tobago on Sunday will not secure them the vote of the influential Concacaf president, Jack Warner.

Until Saturday the most famous scoreline associated with the port at the north end of the Humber Bridge, outside of rugby league circles, was Hull 4 London 0, the title of The Housemartins' debut album. Now there is a new result to cherish, one that ends a century of longing.

Barely had a saturated, satisfied Sir Alex Ferguson completed that curious jig of exhilaration – the one that appears more appropriate to the front row of a punk concert than a season's football finale – than the Premier League's ruling junta were flexing their muscles and ominously rearming themselves. Chelsea have already acquired £16.1 million of defender in Jose Bosingwa. United have any number of possibilities, including the strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Ajax's Klass Jan Huntelaar. Meanwhile, Liverpool's Rafa Benitez has been offering rather more than a come-hither glance towards Aston Villa's Gareth Barry. It's what they do; ensure the power continues to be vestedin the self-same ranks and, in Liverpool and Barry's case, wresting it away from those with pretensions of competing with them.

Sepp Blatter's autographwas much in demand at Gleneagles yesterday. Not by fans, but by representatives of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at the International FA Board meeting. They want the Fifa president formally to sign a declaration that their World Cup status will not be compromised if they agree to supply players to a Great Britain Olympic football team in 2012. Although Blatter has given verbal assurances he seems coy about putting pen to paper, and according to Howard Wells, the chief executive of the Irish Football Association, "the whole thing is dead in the water". Wells tell us that the matter was not raised yesterday, informally or otherwise, so the impasse continues, despite renewed pressure on the home nation refuseniks from Gordon Brown and the Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham. The British Olympic Association say that come what may a GB team will be fielded in London, if necessary with all English players. Seb Coe is believed to have cheekily "tapped up" Sir Alex Ferguson to manage, but the Scot is too canny to play ball at this stage.

Fabio Capello finally confirmed publicly yesterday that David Beckham will get his 100th England cap this year – and the Italian said that he was even prepared to fly to America to watch the former captain in action. Capello made the admission at a forum with England fans, who pressed him on Beckham's international future.

Fifa last night left the door open to an "international round" of Premier League games overseas with a cordial statement that welcomed the Premier League's request to postpone a meeting on the issue, scheduled for tomorrow.

The Football Association said yesterday that the Premier League's plans for an "international round" (IR) of matches overseas are unsustainable in their current format, with its chairman, Lord Triesman, unequivocal in citing four major reasons why a "39th game" – as mooted in a first blueprint earlier this month – cannot happen.

Avram Grant is considering leaving both Frank Lampard and John Terry out of his starting line-up for Sunday's Carling Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur. Both players, who have only recently returned from injury, are understood to privately fear they will be excluded but if the Chelsea manager goes ahead with his plan it will be a remarkably bold move drawing a line under the Jose Mourinho era of "untouchables".

David Gill, the Manchester United chief executive, is expected to deliver a blow to the Premier League's proposal for overseas games by telling the Football Association board today that the club opposes the plan.