HOW are Scotland going to play for 0-0 against Brazil now that our top goalie has jumped ship?
Despite the promising draw with Colombia last weekend, Scotland have an enormous task to escape Group A.
Coral are the least hopeful, assessing Scotland at 1/6 to be eliminated in the first round of matches.
Norway, Scotland's group opponents, and Argentina con-tinue to be the form teams in pre-World Cup friendlies, chalking up wins this week against Saudi Arabia and South Africa respectively.
Ladbrokes were forced into evasive action cutting Argentina from 12/1 to 9/1 (still available at 11/1 with Coral and Tote).
At the risk of developing repeti-tive strain injury, it always pays to check the bookmaker teletext pages before placing your World Cup bets.
Prices can change quickly and there is nothing more annoying than making a trip to a particular shop to find the price has gone.
Channel 4 teletext pages: William Hill (page 602); Ladbrokes (page 606); Coral (page 677); Tote (page 566.
For the dedicated couch potato freephone telephone accounts can be opened with all the above firms.
If you have a Switch or Delta debit card and are willing to risk a minimum of #10 per transaction, the leading bookmakers offer a quick and courteous service to clients.
Telephone account details are on each firm's teletext pages.
True Stattos will already be hooked up to the Internet and should check out the very impressive Soccernet World Cup pages at HYPERLINK http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/soccer/worldcup98/index.html http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/soccer/ worldcup98/index.html
You can even hear a quick snatch of each country's national anthem and a crackly one minute of ''Scotland the Brave'' if you're tempted.
Betting on-line is becoming a serious threat to the established high street firms.
Earlier this week William Hill started a tax-free Internet World Cup betting operation from their European base in the Isle of Man.
The service is not available to UK residents.
However it is hardly beyond the wit of British punters to relay bets via friends based overseas.
Eurobet are a UK firm catering mainly for football punters in Italy and Germany.
Their prices can be viewed at HYPERLINK http://www.eurobet.com/ http://www.eurobet.com/
Since they operate from the British mainland, punters still have to pay betting tax.
However, Eurobet frequently take diametrically opposed views to the British bookmakers resulting in massive price disparities which more than compensate for tax.
Eurobet have England at 14/1 to win the World Cup, which is double the price offered by Hills and Coral.
Despite being thrashed 6-0 by Norway in midweek, Saudi Arabia are tremendous value at 64/1 with Eurobet to top Group C.
The best high-street price is only 14/1.
Don't forget your local independent bookmaker's World Cup prices. Many will offer better terms than the big chains.
I'm still not tempted, but Glasgow bookmaker John Smith is offering Scotland at 200/1 to win the World Cup, 50 points bigger than any of the major firms.
Above is a table with prices for how many points will Scotland and England will win in their group matches. (Prices from John Smith).
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