THE legendary ex-Liverpool boss Bill Shankly once observed: "Football is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that."

Such obsessions are clearly unhealthy and, sadly, Shankly did not survive long after his retirement. But he was surely a wiser man than those who dismiss sport as trivial nonsense.

I am reminded of this by the acres of newsprint devoted to one Peter Mandelson for telling a small untruth. Rarely can anything so trivial have been blown up to such proportions, reminding us of the value of sport in providing an escape and bringing some balance to our lives.

Not that I am a Mandelson fan. Even before this tawdry little episode I felt sorry for the people of Hartlepool, who should now persuade the football club's mascot, H'Angus, to stand at the election so they can register a mass protest vote.

He could either revive the Monster Raving Loony Party or found the Substance Before Spin Party. Anything to provide an antidote to Mandelson mania.

SPINNERS have been much in the news this week, but Mandelson probably wouldn't know a leg break from a pound of bananas and isn't in the same class as Muralitharan and Warne.As England swelter in Sri Lanka all the talk is of how they will play Murali, and this summer they will have to turn their attentions to Warne.

But Warne's powers have waned since he announced himself on the English stage with the ball of last century to bamboozle Mike Gatting, and he now makes headlines for other reasons.

A string of obscenities went out live on Australian television this week via the stump microphone when he was hit for successive sixes.

This comes only a couple of weeks after one of Australia's most respected former cricketers, Neil Harvey, blasted the current team in print for their excessive sledging.

His words obviously had no impact on Warne, whose boorish behaviour does nothing for the image of the game. That's the same image which his teammate Mark Waugh doesn't wish to see tarnished by endless inquiries into match-fixing, which was the reason he gave for avoiding questioning on the subject.

WHAT a contrast between football and rugby in their attitude to cup draws. Perhaps the FA are still coming to terms with other distractions since moving to Soho Square, but why hold the FA Cup fifth round draw while a fourth round match is still in progress?

At the same time as Gillingham were in the draw they were going out of the competition.

It's far better to allow anticipation levels to build overnight and hold the draw on a Monday, usually a quiet day, thereby guaranteeing more headlines in Tuesday's papers.

This line of thinking, however, is being taken to ridiculous extremes in Rugby Union, whose officials don't want to detract from this week's build-up to the Six Nations Championship.

The draw for the semi-finals of the two European events therefore has to wait for ten days after the quarter-finals were completed, and will take place in Dublin next Wednesday, by which time anticipation will have given way to apathy.

WE'D better brace ourselves for plenty of Grand Slam talk in the coming months - England in the Six Nations, Tiger Woods, and now Andre Agassi.

Jennifer Capriati deservedly took the main plaudits in Melbourne for her comeback from the drug-ravaged depths, but Agassi had also sunk pretty low.

At one stage he had fallen to 141st in the world rankings, but he was so determined to be in the best possible shape for the Australian Open he even went for a run in the Nevada desert on Christmas Day.

He is only the fifth player to win all four Grand Slam titles, and now there's talk of him becoming the first to win them all in one year since Rod Laver in 1969.

APPARENTLY Sven, the suave Swede, is horrified by house prices in London, so I'm thinking of sending him a copy of the Echo's Home and Property Guide, in which houses are available for under £10,000.

A three-bedroomed semi in Newton Aycliffe for £19,950 sounds a real bargain, although he might be better off with a two-bedroomed mid-terrace house for £17,000 in Cockfield. He could watch some decent football there and enjoy some lively hands of fives and threes in the pubs - something which Terry Venables apparently enjoys in his local at Hurworth.

The good folk of Cockfield might even persuade Sven of the folly of having David Beckham as his captain.

I hear that Roy Keane asked Sir Alex Ferguson for a cortisone injection before a recent game, at which Beckham said: "If he's getting a new car I want one as well.