The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 39

INSIDE TODAY centre sportinid The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, JANUARY sport.telegraph.co.uk 17, 2003 Keegan rebuffed by Fowler Picture: GARY PRIOR UNITED One that got away: the contract was settled, the transfer fee agreed and the medical exam passed, but Robbie Fowler's move still fell through long persuaded the player to pull out altogether. Missing out on Fowler for the second time this month will be hard to accept for Keegan. The manager at Maine Road has made no secret of the fact that he desperately needs a new striker to partner Anelka, whose £13 million signing has been a great success. Even more galling for the City manager will be the knowledge that he missed out on Barcelona defender Government see athletics as 'step' to Olympics Back the Leader! won't restrict Winners close your always you stake down welcome. size.

and won't Betfair Betfair is the UK's No.1 betting company Place bets at better odds as you bet against other punters. Join the Betfair Revolution £50m turnover per week. Free £10 bet on the on the betfair Open an account online with Betfair, place at least one matched bet and internet phone CLUE we will give you a free £10 bet. official you www.betfair.com 0870 90 80 121 team sponsor to new or line accounts only and con ONE (Min Bet 82) (Min Bet £50) REVOLUTIONISING BETTING CRICKET Lehmann FOOTBALL By Sam Wallace KEVIN KEEGAN was left in a desperate search for a striker last night after a crucial delay by the Manchester City board over the structure of Robbie Fowler's transfer fee saw the collapse of the Leeds United plaver's £7 million move. Keegan was understood to be unhappy that a last-minute attempt by a member of his club's board to tinker with the deal persuaded Leeds to reconsider the whole transfer and the player himself to decide against joining City.

The signing of Fowler would have been a remarkable coup for Keegan, who was first rebuffed by the 27-year-old when he tried to tempt him to City this month. Undeterred when that attempt failed, Keegan, who saw the Leeds striker as the ideal partner for Nicolas Anelka, weighed in with a second offer for Fowler. With Keegan leading, the negotiations chairman, Peter Ridsdale, the two clubs are understood to have reached an agreement in which City paid £4.5 million guaranteed, with a further £500,000 when Fowler completed 30 matches and another £500,000 when he completed a further 30 matches. The final £1.5 million payment would have been contingent on City's success in this Premiership season. With personal terms in place, and a final fee that could have risen to £7 million, Fowler travelled to Manchester on Wednesday to complete his medical.

He passed the club doctor's tests on the hip problem that had ruled him out of so much of this season but enough doubts were raised about his condition for members of City's board to attempt to restructure the agreed deal. The new proposal was understood to have involved potentially more money for Leeds, but was weighted much more heavily in favour of Fowler's appearances for City. Leeds, who desperately need guaranteed money to reduce debts of about £70 million, rejected City's new suggestion. Crucially, at this point of the negotiations, Fowler's feeling that City had delayed the deal too LONDON2012 By Mihir Bose THE Government are proposing to bid for the 2009 World Athletics Championships as part of a long-term plan to regain ground they lost when they withdrew from hosting the 2005 World Championships in London and as a means of improving Britain's international position on a bid to host the Olympic Games. Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, told The Daily Telegraph: "It is part of our wider strategy on sport as laid out in the strategy unit faces long suspension for abuse By Nick Hoult in Adelaide DARREN LEHMANN faces an eight-match suspension that will rule him out of Australia's early World Cup campaign, after he was charged with racial remarks makings.

Lanka team. Lehmann was yesterday charged by the International Cricket Council under level three of the code of conduct, which carried the maximum suspension of four to eight oneday internationals. If found guilty Lehmann will certainly miss the finals of the current one-day series against England and Sri Lanka and could even miss the majority of Australia's six first-round World Cup matches. The ICC's chief executive, Malcolm Speed, acknowledged Lehmann's apology, but he added: "In the interests of eradicating racial vilification in international cricket I am bound to lay this Lehmann, Yorkshire's captain, was overheard making a racial remark in the Australia dressing room after he was run a paper to bring major events to this country and, while the hosting of the 2009 World Athletics Championships would not affect the outcome of a bid for a 2012 London Olympics it will indicate to the international sports bodies that we are keen to stage major events. Wembley will be long ready by then and could stage 2009." Jowell, who flies to Lausanne this morning for a first meeting with Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, will discuss the possibility of a British bid for 2009.

She will use it to gauge how he evaluates Britain's standing in the world and the chances of succeding with an Olympic Michael Reiziger to preserve funds for the Fowler deal. The failure to land Fowler could also strain relations between Keegan and the board, who have assured their manager that the money made available for Fowler would still be at this disposal. David Bernstein, chairman, said last night that he was certain that Keegan would return to the transfer market before the end of January. bid. In her evidence to the Commons select committee on Wednesday, Jowell, while insisting the decision to withdraw from 2005 was right, admitted it had damaged Britain's reputation internationally although she felt the successful staging of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester had recovered ground.

The hosting of 2009 is meant to be a further step that road leading, possibly, to a 2012 London Olympics. The Government will only back a London bid for 2012 if they believe it has a good chance of winning, and Jowell intends to use her meeting with Rogge to make a personal assessment. When the Cabinet meet on Jan 30 to decide "We thought we had a deal and we had worked very hard on this," Bernstein said. "Kevin Keegan was keen and I was keen to do it and we thought we were there. Today things went rather quiet which was not the best sign and we got the us that Robbie had reconsidered and decided to stay at Leeds that's all we know.

"It wasn't us who pulled away, it was him but I am a bit long in the on this matter, Jowell will have to present a memorandum on winnability. Reports on London's chances by UK Sport and by an internal assessment being prepared in Jowell's ministry show that Britain is considered not to have much influence in the corridors of power and certainly less than other European countries such as France southern Europeans. This explains why Jowell has been so downbeat this week in her assessment of a London bid, to the House of Commons and to the select committee, but The Daily Telegraph understands that there is another reason for her pessimism. tooth to get angry about these things. The thought of Robbie Fowler and Nicolas Anelka together in attack would have been very exciting for me as a fan as well as a director." Leeds were yesterday understood to have called back David Walker, one of their directors, from Brazil where he was negotiating the transfer of Brazil's World Cup-winning midfielder, Kleberson, from Atletico Paran- It appears that neither she nor her sports minister, Richard Caborn, have any idea what the Prime Minister is thinking on this issue.

Jowell and Caborn are believed to be covering their bets to make sure they land on the right side when Blair jumps. Apart from Blair and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, the other important Cabinet figure who will play a major part in deciding on a London bid is Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. He will chair the Cabinet committee who will consider the issue before the full Cabinet decide on Jan 30. Straw will be heavily influenced by Patrick Carter, who played crucial roles in the aense. The club suffered a further blow yesterday when defender Jonathan Woodgate, one of their most saleable assets, was ruled out of action for weeks.

Fowler chose to stay silent on the reasons behind the breakdown of his transfer, although in a brief statement the player said he had decided, on reflection, to stay at Leeds. "I'm happy to do so now and I want to do my best for the club," he added. funding for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the Wembley decision and was recently appointed chairman of Sport England. Carter has no known sports background and is intensely media-shy he has given no interviews since taking over as Sport England chairman and he missed this week's select committee meeting by being away in Australia on business combined with pleasure. However, his role in Sport England is to cut costs.

He has frozen all Lottery spending and is believed to take a coldeyed, realistic view of the potential Olympics expenditure which could translate into a 'no'. Darren Lehmann: apologised out for 38 during a one-day international in Brisbane on Wednesday evening. The Sri Lanka management complained to match referee Clive Lloyd, but Lehmann quickly apologised both verbally and in a letter. That action placated the Sri Lankans and Lloyd but, during such politically charged times within the ICC, Lehmann found himself facing a severe reprimand from cricket's world governing body. Lehmann was reprimanded by the Australian Cricket Board, and chief executive James Sutherland disclosed that he would be sent for counselling.

Sri Lanka were hoping their moderation would ease the pressure on Muttiah Muralitharan. The off-spinner had been baited relentlessly by the Australian crowds as a a legacy from throwing controversies in two previous tours. Muralitharan said yesterday: "I have been disgusted with it, and I feel like not touring Australia again." Muralitharan pulled a thigh muscle chasing the ball to the boundary in Brisbane, but after leaving the field for treatment returned to bowl four overs. INSIDE SPORT Investigation and analysis of the Olympic issue by Mihir Bose S465 Flintoff returns: Sport 8.