New tickets on sale for England v Scotland

Football

The Euro 96 organising committee has dug deep to find extra tickets for England's group matches at Wembley, and the 1,000 or so additional seats will be available from this morning.

The decision to set Uefa's perimeter advertising hoardings lower in the ground has opened up the view, and as a result, johnny-come-latelys will not only now be able to get into the previously "sold out" England encounter with Scotland on 15 June, or the Wembley matches against the Netherlands and Switzerland, but also could find themselves with a front row seat.

Given that from today, supporters can obtain seats for individual quarter and semi-final games without needing to buy tickets for three different group games, all those who paid out for series of tickets two years in advance might feel rather miffed.

The Euro 96 media relations manager, Alec McGivan, confirmed that repositioning advertising boards "means we can release an extra row or two of seats around the stadium. We are only talking about a thousand or so seats for each game."

On the lifting of other purchasing restrictions, he said: "We always said that in the last few weeks before the tournament any remaining quarter and semi-final tickets available would be sold on a restriction-free basis. We are not expecting them to last long."

Francis Lee, the chairman of Manchester City, had a message yesterday for anyone who might have thought that, following relegation, Georgi Kinkladze's stay at Maine Road would not be lasting much longer.

"Georgi has been a breath of fresh air in the English game and you can forget all the stories about him being whisked away to some big-money club," Lee said. "Some of the things he does with the ball take your breath away." So will some of the offers Lee will no doubt have dangled in front of him to tempt him to part with the Georgian midfielder.

However, if the club did wish to build up some funds, there are plenty of other candidates for the market-place. The German Uwe Rosler and his striking partner Niall Quinn have not always seemed to see eye-to-eye with City's manager, Alan Ball, and others, like the Republic of Ireland's Alan Kernaghan, Scotland's Gerry Creaney and the German Michael Frontzeck might be on their way out as First Division football beckons.

Bolton Wanderers, who face the same readjustment, will have to make it without the help of Ian Porterfield, who unexpectedly decided not to continue as assistant to Bolton's manager, Colin Todd. The Scot had been on a short- term contract, but was likely to have been offered another deal.

A new two-year contract is likely to satisfy the Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall, even if he ends up in the reserves. He will have talks with Eevrton's manager, Joe Royle.

Brighton will replay their abandoned Second Division match against relegation- threatened York City tomorrow morning. Sussex police ordered an 11am kick- off for security reasons. The original game on xx April was abandoned when fans protesting at Brighton's proposed move to Portsmouth invaded the Goldstone Ground pitch and smashed both goals.

"Obviously this is unusual but the key issue is public order and the pubs will not be open then," Andy Williamson, the Football League spokesman, said.