Wim Jansen has told Celtic that a return to Glasgow will only be on his terms - and that means ditching Kenny Dalglish. The Dutchman, who masterminded Celtic's last Premier League championship triumph in 1998 only to leave the club immediately in controversial circumstances, has been installed as a hot favourite to succeed John Barnes.

"You can either do your work your way or not," Jansen said. "If I am going to go down as a coach, I will do it with my own ideas and my own mistakes - not through other people. I'm in a position now where if that is not on offer, then no problem."

Scotland could have two representatives in the European Champions League the season after next, UEFA officials told Scottish officials yesterday. Scotland's rise to 14th in the UEFA rankings means the country's top two teams next season will both enter the qualifying section of the Champions League in the second and third rounds respectively in season 2001/2.

Keith O'Neill has been ruled out of Middlesbrough's home game against Coventry on Saturday. He suffered a groin strain in the 4-0 home defeat by Aston Villa on Monday night. Manager Bryan Robson said: "It is very disappointing because I thought O'Neill was our best player against Villa."

World Cup winner Lilian Thuram took his racist tormentors to task yesterday. Thuram, one of three Parma players to be targeted by racist Lazio fans on Sunday night, told Gazzettadello Sport that racist attitudes existed throughout the civilised world, not just in Italy. "And let's tell the truth once and for all: until 100 years ago eminent white scholars - university professors and learned sociologists - claimed that the black race was inferior to the white one."

He said that slavery had only been abolished relatively recently and had been widely accepted. "Today's booing is the result of that culture which, logically enough, cannot disappear in a short space of time after having been dominant for centuries." He added: "The battle is going to be a long one."