Settlement shows Eva Carneiro IS a clever woman

Just before Eva Carneiro was due to take the stand at London South Employment Tribunal in Croydon yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon she accepted a settlement now thought to be in the region of £5 million from the Special One and Chelsea FC.

It is said Jose Mourinho acted to silence 'scandalous' sexism allegations minutes before she was due to go public with them.k

Chelsea then issued an apology to the 42-year-old – who had turned down the club's initial £1.2million offer – but it seems Mourinho pointedly did not say sorry.

The huge deal was struck as Dr Carneiro prepared to take the witness stand to make further explosive claims. She had threatened to expose embarrassing texts and emails about her time working for the Special One, now manager at Manchester United.

And there I was thinking the money wasn’t important and that she was going to speak out about some of the things that are wrong in the beautiful game.

I’m not sure whether to praise her or criticise her.

On this day 20 years ago my brother-in-law (BIL) and I were at the “old Wembley” to witness the opening ceremony of Euro ’96 and the ensuing first match – England v Switzerland.

We had been England Members for a number of years and early in 1994 were at a rather boring friendly international at the home of football when I picked up a brochure advertising ticketing arrangements for Euro ’96.

England members were given priority before tickets went on general sale in the summer and on March 25 that year my application for two tickets for each of the six Wembley games, including the final, was in the post.

Early in April I received a letter from the tournament organisers saying my application had been successful – whoopee.

I made a quick call to BIL, who was as delighted as I was. I then had a tense wait until SWMBO came home from school.

I’d forgotten, somehow, to tell her I had applied for the tickets – and had spent £580. She took it well, especially after I explained that BIL would be reimbursing me for half the cost.

Looking back, as is my want, an average cost of £48.33 a ticket was not too shabby.