IT’S OSCAR’S, Emmie’s, Golden Globe's, RTS’s or Uncle Tom Cobleigh's this week!

Surely there can’t be any awards left to hand out.

Oh yes there are! Sir Bobby Robson should get one for courage after pledging to go to South Africa to watch England win the World Cup next year – despite five comebacks from cancer operations.

Arsene Wenger should get one for blind optimism. He says Arsenal can still win the Premiership title. Has he not looked at the table lately, Arsenal are 17 points behind Manchester United.

And Giles Clarke and David Collier should step up together to share the award for pig-headedness which goes to the ECB for steadfastly refusing to acknowledge their folly in getting into bed with the discredited Allen Stanford.

The Rugby Football League is on the verge of winning a gong too unless they relent on a decision to bar Garry Green from playing for York City Knights.

There is certainly merit in a new Home Office ruling which prevents professional sportsmen plying their trade here on holiday visas.

No longer can Aussies and Kiwis just turn up here and get a game for a professional club. They have to obtain a work permit.

That’s fair enough but, as always, there are exceptions to the rule, and Green is one of them.

He is a resident in this country, a business owner and a British tax payer. His credentials were good enough for him to pay for Batley last season.

Crucially he has no plans to return to Australia, and as the RFL has it within their powers to grant special dispensation on an individual basis to players who don’t meet the criteria I can see no reason why Green should be barred.

The newness of this Home Office requirement has seen some players come to England – after spending thousands of dollars on air fares and visas – and then on being told they can’t play turn round and go straight back home.

Wouldn’t it have been fairer to allow those who used to fill the requirement stay until the end of this season and then implement the law from the start of next season?

AS A COMMENTATOR I’m used to hours of research and compiling a shed load of statistics.

Every now and again one gets up and hits you between the eyes.

I don’t do the football pools, but if I did I would have laid out fortunes on Middlesbrough 0 Wigan 0 last weekend.

Guess how many league goals Boro have scored in 2009.

I'll tell you ONE – and that’s in nine matches since a 1-1 draw with Arsenal on December 13.

Guess how many goals Wigan have netted in their last six matches.

ONE again – and that was Mido’s penalty against Tottenham Hotspur.

That means that between them Boro and Wigan have played 15 games – or 1,350 minutes if you prefer it – and managed one measly goal in open play.

What on earth do they do in training?

There were three scoreless draws in the Premiership last weekend, Arsenal’s was their third in a row, and there was one weekend recently when only one team in League One managed an away goal.

What’s the answer? Come to Bradford (Park Avenue). We beat Ashton United 6-4 last week.

Now that’s entertainment!

THE Champions League is back in full swing and tonight’s (Wednesday) matches are further proof that is the best league in the world.

Forget the World Cup – much as I love it – Real Madrid v Liverpool and Chelsea v Juventus will be tougher matches than Argentina v Ivory Coast (sorry Cote d’Ivoire).

This column is written ahead of last night's action, but I bet Arsenal v Roma, Inter Milan v Manchester United and Lyon v Barcelona were rollicking good ties as well.

Claudio Ranieri was a good guy in the eyes of the media when he was at Chelsea.

Unfailingly helpful, humorous, partly because his English was about as good as Manuel’s in Fawlty Towers, and pretty successful, Ranieri will be afforded a warm welcome at Stamford Bridge tonight.

Real Madrid are not as formidable as they were four or five years ago when Raul was in his pomp, so Liverpool have a chance, especially as they seem to reserve their best performances for European nights.

With all our top four clubs still in there we could have a repeat of last year's unprecedented all-English final in Rome in May.

Without wishing to sound unpatriotic I hope not. I prefer the last two standing to come from different countries.

The all-Spanish, all-Italian and all-English finals of recent years have been pretty dull but apart from the teams I've already mentioned the likes of Bayern Munich, Porto and Atletico Madrid are still in there as well so it’s going to be an exciting run-in to the final.