You could barely see the drivers for teddies flying through the air - thrown out of prams assembled on the stage at the Chinese Grand Prix press conference in Shanghai. Lewis Hamilton’s pram was in pole position at the front of the stage, next to that of Robert Kubica. Behind them, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen sat sullenly in theirs. Motor racing betting fans saw the tantrums start when Alonso made clear the lingering resentment he feels for his perceived second-best treatment from the McLaren team in last year’s season. He doesn’t like Lewis any more and he wants his new friend Robert to win this year and, if he doesn’t, then Felipe and he’s going to do all he can to help them.

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What a year it has been for British sport, and as we are running into the closing straight of this year it is time to bring some attention to who will lift The BBC’s Sport Personality of The Year award. I have a feeling this year is going to be a tough one to call. With so many great sporting accomplishments by British sports men and woman during 2008. Here we highlight the contenders for the title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

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After the racist incidents during last month’s clash between Croatia and England, FIFA fined the Croatian FA £15000. It’s difficult to understand what their thinking was, given that this is a relatively small fine and unlikely to concentrate the minds of the Croatian authorities on the subject. Both Rio Ferdinand and Emile Heskey, victim of racial incidents in Croatia, have criticised FIFA for the inadequacy of their approach to combating racism. Each have said that a points deduction penalty is the only way forward.

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During my years of playing (not so much now) and watching football, I have seen some great goals in my time and some absolute blatant misses. On Saturday, I watched the Scotland vs Norway, a 2010 World Cup Qualification game, and was amazed by what I saw. Chris Iwelumo, playing his first game for Scotland had the mother of all sitters.

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I’m surprised that Fabio Capello appears shocked at the booing of the England team. I can understand his being upset but there surely must be a moronic element in Italian and every other country’s football stadiums that doesn’t know how to behave themselves and at least try to be cool - a section of the crowd that cannot grasp the absurdity of paying money to see their team play football and win and then wilfully undermining their efforts.

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Danny Cipriano has been in a spat with team mate Josh Lewsey and received a few cuts and bruises. It’s all part of the game, we’re told and not to make too much fuss about it. Now I wasn’t part of that training session and I haven’t interviewed either party but that doesn’t stop me speculating that the ugly culture of celebrity has played a role in this disharmony. In one newspaper report I saw both players described as celebrities and it got me thinking about the true nature of this artificial state of being, so revered in our society yet so reviled by those with intelligence and taste.

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This weekend sees England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland once again take part in Fifa’s 2010 Qualifying groups. Here are the latest World Cup betting lists for the home nations and some form guide to help you make your selection.

Group 6 :
England	vs	Kazakhstan
Fifa Ranked : 14th		Fifa Ranked : 131st
England will be looking to add to their good start to Group 6 with a victory against Kazakhstan. John Terry looks doubtful but Rio Ferdinand is ready to take Terry’s place.
Previous World Cup Qualifying Games
Andorra 0 England 2 Croatia 1 England 4		Kazakhstan 3 Andorra 0 Kazakhstan 1 Ukraine 3
World Cup Qualifying Betting Odds
England To Win 1 / 14 Draw 10 / 1 Kazakhstan To Win 50 / 1 England To Qualify 2 / 5

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Cricket betting fans the world over would be well advised to keep an eye on events in India over the next few weeks when the Australian cricket team take on India in a four match test series starting tomorrow in Bangalore. The Indian cricket team have given the Australians their most challenging moments in the last fifteen years of their domination of international cricket. Now the Australian team, depleted by the retirement last year of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer and, more recently the team’s most formidable binding influence, Adam Gilchrist, must show that they have met the challenge of compensating for the loss of these household names.

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This is it, the final 12 for the 2008 X-Factor contest have been chosen. This year the Girls, mentored by Cheryl Cole, look ever so strong. But we can’t take anything for granted in this contest, except for the year Leona Lewis won it. Now we have the elimination process of each entry singing to themed weeks to help show their versatality in dealing with different music genres.

But I know what your thinking, who is going to win the x-factor? We’ll we are as well, so we have compiled a list of the entrants and their x factor betting odds. We give you the latest odds on who is going to win, be booted off, sorry, evicted first this Saturday.

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I think today was a turning point for me. OK, various Premiership football clubs have been bought out by foreign investors in recent years and this might have led to the occasional ripple of unease but - nothing to get too worried about. After all we live in a globalised, multi-cultural, melting-pot kind of world and, hey, who cares where the owners come from as long as they understand football and pile in the cash. Sports fans might look at Chelsea. In come large amounts of Russian oil money and the next thing you know a club with a previously indifferent performance suddenly threatens to rule the roost. Later down the line, with their new Middle Eastern owners, and £520 billion behind them, Manchester City has mind-boggling fifty times the buying power of Chelsea.

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