Terry Venables yesterday said he was "close" to deciding whether to accept Middlesbrough's offer to coach the Premiership club. The 57-year-old former England coach, who has been mulling over an offer to join Bryan Robson at the Riverside Stadium in a bid to revive Boro's fortunes after a poor run of results, claims he expects to let chairman Steve Gibson know his answer soon.

"I'm trying to sort out problems which I have had from day one owing to the fact that I'm not in the game," said Venables. "I have other contracts to sort out and I am sorting them out, and it should come to a close very quickly."

The former Tottenham and Barcelona boss has been considering Boro's offer since last Thursday and it is still not clear which way he will jump. Venables is developing a major football complex in Spain and also has extensive media interests.

Scotland manager Craig Brown advised Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw to think again yesterday after he backed the idea of a British national team.

"The one area of sport where we have been consistently successful is athletics and that is the one area of sport where we do not have an English, Scottish and Welsh team but a British team," Straw said. "I personally look forward to the day when we have a British football team. I think we might start winning some games."

But the idea of replacing Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England by one British team at the World Cup is about as popular north of the border as cold haggis.

"Here in Scotland the suggestion is not met with much approval," Brown said. "We are very proud of our identity and very patriotic. We would like to retain the autonomous situation which we have in football."

Rangers are to hold a service to commemorate the 66 people killed in the Ibrox disaster of 1971. The service will take place on January 2nd and relatives of the dead have been invited to participate in the unveiling of a bronze statue at the stadium.