FOUR Premier League matches could not be played on New Year's Day this year - just because Sky Sports wanted to televise Manchester City versus Blackburn on December 27.

Sky's decision to screen City's game last Thursday night denied those two clubs a traditional Boxing Day fixture. If that was not annoying enough, the need for a three-day gap between matches meant they could not play on Saturday or on January 1 either.

Hence Liverpool and Derby, who played City and Blackburn respectively on Sunday, also had to switch their New Year's Day games to last night, Wednesday.

That meant that eight clubs had their matches moved over the Christmas period for no good reason - could City against Blackburn not have been played at 5.15pm on Boxing Day if it had to be televised?

As a result, instead of playing on New Year's Day - when most people were off work - City had to travel to Newcastle, Sunderland to Blackburn, Derby to Bolton and Wigan to Liverpool on a working day.

* There have been suggestions in the past few days that even Alex Ferguson is powerless to stop multi-millionaire footballers doing what they like these days.

These players are too valuable for even Ferguson to be able to dispose of on a whim - or so some would have us believe.

Jaap Stam wasn't exactly worthless when Ferguson froze him out and then shipped him out in 2001 because of comments Stam had made in his autobiography.

He wasn't the first to be suddenly ditched by the United boss. No doubt he won't be the last either.

* Amid the furore surrounding Christmas parties, there was the cautionary tale of Bayern Munich skipper Oliver Kahn.

The veteran goalkeeper was suspended from Bayern's next game by manager Ottmar Hitzfeld for not fulfilling his captain's duties at the club's Christmas party - he left early.

Presumably he was the only one with the directions to the lap-dancing club.