SOCCER´S BOTTOM LINE

by RAY FLEMING
THE supporters of Liverpool and AC Milan are said to be furious because their clubs have received only 17'000 tickets each from Uefa for the upcoming Champions League final at Athens. Each club could sell an extra five thousand or more tickets but both have been told there are none to spare. The Olympic Stadium in Athens has a normal capacity of 72'000 but this has been limited to 63'000 for the big game. The reduction has not been made on the grounds of safety as one might expect but in order to erect extra advertising hoardings at strategic points where they will be seen by the TV cameras. What a perfect summation of the way in which soccer has sold its soul to mammon! And in the Olympic Stadium of all stadia! Meanwhile, in Britain, the West Ham United case has revealed how presence in the Premiership has become a licence to print money regardless of performance. West Ham's owners were delighted to be fined five million pounds for a transfer irregularity instead of having points docked which would have led to relegation and the consequent loss of ten times as much. The pot of gold that the Premiership has become was perfectly illustrated last week by Steve Coppell, the engagingly monosyllabic manager of Reading, when he admitted that if his side got a place in the Uefa Cup next season he would field reserves for the games because the Premiership is more important.