Ooh aah, what a cruel hoax

A telephone caller who made a hoax bid to a radio auction for Eric Cantona's last Manchester United shirt almost cost a young footballer who was forced out of the game more than pounds 15,000. The caller joined in a radio auction for the signed number seven shirt as thousands of bids flooded in for the souvenir.

Radio station bosses at Manchester's Key 103 discovered yesterday that the pounds 15,350 bid - which would have gone to Coventry City defender David Busst's testimonial fund - had been "a cruel hoax". But the shirt - worn by Cantona in a testimonial game for Busst and presented to him by the Frenchman 24 hours before he resigned from United - is now to be offered as a competition prize in a national newspaper.