Inside Lines: League boss opposes Caborn appointment

The FA have never been dab hands at making crucial appointments – Adam Crozier, Mark Palios, Sven Goran Eriksson and seemingly now Steve McClaren, to name but a few – and they could be about to shoot themselves in the football again. Ex-sports minister Richard Caborn is rightly the leading contender to become the body's first independent chairman, ideally equipped with his political and football connections and ambassadorial skills. Caborn is backed by his friend Sir Dave Richards, but not by the Premiership chair's opposite number at the League, Lord Mawhinney, who, significantly, heads the selection panel. Mawhinney has told Caborn that he would prefer a City figure, and will not be supporting him. But suitable captains of industry seem to be thin on the pitch among the 20 applicants – though we hear Tesco chair Sir Terry Leahy has been approached, along with HSBC's Eddie Charlton. With their penchant for picking losers, we hesitate to point out that the former chairman of the beleaguered Northern Rock is lookingfor a job.

Roger and ouch! That's why the lady's a champ

BBC sports chief Roger Mosey, battered by ITV's rugby and F1 coups and now by budget cuts, was not best pleased at having his ears boxed recently by a lady. Baroness Golding, the fiesty 74-year-old Labour peer and fight fan, told him in no uncertain terms what she thought of the BBC blanking boxing on their screens. A steward of the British Boxing Board of Control, she and Ian Stewart, the MP who chairs the Parliamentary Boxing Committee, met Mosey following the ban imposed by the departed BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham but were told there was no money available.

'Liberated' Ming set for Olympics role?

The Prime Minister, who is believed to be looking for a senior Parliamentary figure to help beef up the political stewardship of the London Olympics project, doubtless will be interested in the sudden availability of his old friend Sir Menzies Campbell (pictured). The deposed Lib Dem leader can expect a call from Downing Street inviting him to consider a role liaising with the Government and 2012 Games planners, one which the old Olympian would relish. A former Edinburgh Wanderers rugby winger and record-breaking sprinter who ran for Britain in the Tokyo Games of 1964, he told us recently that he was "more obsessed by sport than politics". Surely someone of Ming's stature could also be useful to mediate in the growing rift between UK Sport and the BOA.

London happy to apply some French polish

Deflated and defeated they may be, but France have organised rugby's World Cup superbly, and no doubt Paris would have orchestrated an equally brilliant Olympics had they not been sucker-punched by Seb Coe in Singapore. They still simmer angrily over that, believing London underpriced their bid to impress the IOC, who now want "more accurate" budgeting of costs. But they can take comfort that French company EDF will be London's official energy supplier and two other French-owned outfits, Orange and Elyo, are front-runners to secure major 2012 contracts.

It's Bath time again with 91-year-old Ivor up for Cup

Team Bath, the university side whose inspiration is football's oldest working coach, 91-year-old Ivor Powell (pictured), are on the verge of reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup for the second time. They visit AFC Hornchurch on Saturday, with the ex-Welsh international occupying his usual place in thedug-out. Here's hoping they make an old man very happy.