So after the abortive winter World Cup idea, now the game of three thirds as Fifa seeks to square the circle of holding the tournament in a desert. Michael Beaven of the engineering firm Arup Associates claimed on Tuesday that 2022 World Cup matches may be played in three 30-minute periods. He was saying it is necessary to prevent player injuries if temperatures top 32C.

Although Fifa denied it had discussed the matter, it is strongly possible talks will take place over the next 11 years since the three-thirds idea would generate many more millions for broadcasters in ad revenue. And what is good for broadcasters is good for Fifa.

US broadcasters earned $213m from 48 minutes of ad breaks during the Super Bowl, which has four quarters. Two "half-times" in a three-period World Cup match would create a lot of potential space for the adverts, thus raising broadcast-rights values. One senior television executive, who is far from enamoured at the idea, said: "I can't think of any other rationale for it than a commercial motive."

But if Fifa is going to introduce it, it must change the laws of the game after almost 150 years, which would have a further-reaching effect than just the World Cup. There is the facility for the Qatar 2022 organisers to change the format of games during their competition under football's Law 7. "The match lasts two equal periods of 45 minutes unless mutually agreed between the referee and the two teams," it says. "Any agreement to alter the duration of play must be made before the start of play and must comply with competition rules."

Regrettably for Fifa, Qatar 2022 seems to have been stung by the furore and on Thursday it issued a categorical denial of Beaven's claims. "Statements on this subject made by Mr Beaven from Arup are without any foundation," it said in a statement. But then holding the World Cup in a desert was never going to be easy.

Football League's kicking

The Football League copped it in parliament on Tuesday. The adjournment debate was entitled Football Clubs in Administration and MPs lined up to kick the League around like a leather ball. One complained bitterly how the League froze its television payments to Plymouth Argyle when the club went into administration, preventing the funds being paid out in staff salaries. This was because the club had previously used the monies as security on a loan from Mastpoint, the investment vehicle of its former chairman-shareholder, Sir Roy Gardner, and the League could not risk a legal claim from him if it paid out to staff.

Then in the same debate another MP complained: "The football creditors rule has no place in football today." Yet it is only under the football creditors rule that staff are entitled to 100p in the pound on their salaries. It ensures that one day they will receive all they are owed, provided they push for it and their club survives. It is impossible to enthuse about a football creditors rule that has many flaws, not least that the taxpayer is tens of millions of pounds out of pocket from past football insolvencies. But the twin, mutually contradictory dilemmas for which the League received so much flak in Westminster prove that football administration is the impossible job.

Pilgrims deal delayed

As criticism mounts, the Football League is entering a still more critical period at Home Park. The administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle, has yet to forward details of the transaction that will see Peter Ridsdale take control of Argyle later this month. But for Ridsdale's takeover to become official, the League must first satisfy itself that Guilfoyle, Ridsdale and Kevin Heaney, who is separating the property assets from the club, have put together a viable business plan. If it does not, it will refuse to confer the golden share in its competition to Ridsdale and Guilfoyle must look for a new buyer. That would be potentially catastrophic for a club that has not had the cash to pay all of the June payroll and cannot muster July's. But the League has done this before: in April last year it blocked a takeover at Stockport over "concerns about the proposed business plan and ownership structure". Contracts have been exchanged on Ridsdale's takeover but Plymouth are not out of the woods yet.

Directors getting younger

There are three milestones by which every football fan ages. The first is when you realise the players you are cheering from the stands are younger than you. Then when you realise the manager in the dugout is younger than you. The third, seemingly distant signpost comes when even the directors in the boardroom are younger than you. After the arrival of Chelsea's 33-year-old manager, André Villas Boas, someone else has now risen to prominence in a Premier League club boardroom to make Digger feel very old indeed. OSunderland have announced that itthey have appointed Margaret Byrne as chief executive. She is 31 years old.