Privileged position: UEFA president Michel Platini

Some are talking of commuting from Kiev, but to stay in the capital the night before England play Sweden, the
Intercontinental Hotel wanted 4,500 euros. A single-star hostel asked a grand.

And forget taking in one of the big games elsewhere. To travel to Donetsk from Gdansk, where Spain play Italy on the eve of England's first game with France, requires two plane changes, a 3am start and the final flight arrives too perilously close to kick-off to risk it.

On Friday, Platini was asked about the World Cup in Qatar. 'How can people go to Qatar in 50 degrees in June?' he queried. Don't know, pal, but maybe that is something you might have considered before you voted for them.

This is Platini's preferred method. Vote first - in your interests, or those of your political allies, obviously - ask questions later. He has already pronounced the 2012 tournament a success. And it will be for him, sailing through from a five-star suite to the VIP entrance in his chauffeured limousine, chartered jet on the runway awaiting his arrival the next day, untouched by the expense and confusion.

'A complicated adventure,' was how Platini described the championship, but nothing changes in his lovely life. Whether he sends a World Cup to Qatar or England's fans to a city palpably unable to accommodate their needs, he remains in the lap of well-upholstered luxury, as insulated and protected from reality as any Royal.

The thought of David Bernstein, the FA chairman, trying to cosy up to this clown - the pair dined, with their wives, before Chelsea's match with Liverpool last month - is appalling. This is one tent we should be outside, peeing in.
O'Neill is back where he started

Ellis Short, chairman of Sunderland, has set Martin O'Neill his target - a regular finish in the top 10. The new man must be thrilled with that.

O'Neill had to get back into management if he was not to become one of football's forgotten bosses, but is he that much better off than when he left?

The differences between Sunderland and Aston Villa are minimal. Villa are a selling club; Sunderland, too. Villa have a grand history but are pegged outside the Premier League elite; Sunderland, too. Villa had seemingly reached the limit of their ambitions under O'Neill in sixth position; if anything, Sunderland's are set lower.

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