The richest league in the world received confirmation of their extraordinary £8billion-plus haul from TV rights on Thursday, yet couldn’t agree the way forward to help away fans.

The 20 Premier League clubs, despite being awash with money over the next three seasons (£5.1bn domestic and £3bn overseas), spent more time debating the issue of assisting travelling supporters than any other item on the agenda during a five-and-a-half-hour meeting in London.

The big clubs, as usual, were against the sensible proposal to cap away tickets at £30, although Everton spoke loudly in favour.

Premier League clubs voted against a proposal to cap tickets for away fans at £30 in a summit on Thursday

In a secret ballot, seven or eight clubs are understood to have opposed the capping — those led by greedy Arsenal who charge away supporters the most — leaving the Premier League short of the 14-club majority needed to make such changes.

The proposal will be back on the table at the March meeting after clubs voted heavily against the compromise of a funding arrangement where clubs would get money to help travelling supporters which they could use in varied ways.

Norwich's new chairman Ed Balls made his debut on Thursday at the Premier League clubs summit

Norwich's new chairman Ed Balls made his debut on Thursday at the Premier League clubs summit.

And former Chancellor Balls, a veteran of Cabinet scheming, leaks and attempted political coups, would certainly have found it different from talkative Whitehall that it’s somehow accepted by the clubs that only the all-powerful executive chairman Richard Scudamore or his on-message spin doctors speak about the meeting.

Balls is said to have made a strong contribution but sadly no one mentioned his Eddie the Eagle-themed sponge cake from Sport Relief Bake-Off the night before.

Sky Sports said beleaguered Valencia boss Gary Neville had an open invitation to return when he left Isleworth for Spain.

Gary Neville's dreadful record at Valencia will seriously impact on his stellar image if he returns to punditry

But unfortunately for Neville — unless he’s given time to turn things around — his dreadful record in La Liga is going to seriously impact on his previous stellar image as the best pundit in the business.

Meanwhile, the FA are not expecting assistant England coach Neville to attend when a squad of around 40 players assemble at St George’s Park next Thursday for a debrief with Roy Hodgson during the four-month international break.

However, Neville has had regular video calls with Hodgson during his Spanish nightmare.

Emergence of devout Muslim Moe Sbihi will help British Rowing's aim to shrug off its elite image

The emergence of devout Muslim Moe Sbihi as a potential gold medallist in Rio will help British Rowing with their ambitious strategy under chief executive Andy Parkinson to change the elite image of the sport to a far more diverse one.

Sbihi, who won a bronze medal in the men’s eight at London 2012, has broken Olympic great Matthew Pinsent’s lauded British indoor 2k record on the ergo machine, which had stood for 11 years.

Stuart Lancaster has been back coaching ahead of the Six Nations — albeit helping out the U15 team at Woodhouse Grove School in Leeds.

Former England coach Stuart Lancaster has continued good relationships with the RFU high command

And after England prop Dan Cole became the latest critic of Lancaster’s World Cup fiasco — saying the coaching was totally wrong — the castigated former England coach deserves to have his say.

But although it’s understood Lancaster’s pay-off wouldn’t be adversely affected by him recounting his side of the story, his continued good relationships with the RFU high command makes it unlikely he will do so.

LA Galaxy defender Ashley Cole pocketed £2m when his contract at Roma was terminated early

Ashley Cole's $300,000 salary for a season with LA Galaxy in the MLS looks on the surface a cut-price finale to a career for a player who has always been particularly well remunerated — especially for a full back.

And this is still the case with Roma, where his contract was terminated by mutual consent, paying him around £2m to leave early.

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan will map out his FIFA candidacy at a press conference in Geneva next week

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan has announced a press conference in Geneva next Thursday at which he is going to set out his first-year road map, ‘should he be successful in his campaign for the presidency of FIFA’.