My letter to UEFA has caused quite a stir in the local media. Within five minutes of a press release being sent out, Radio Leeds were on the phone asking for an interview. As I was was on holiday I ended up speaking to them live on air from a remote beach on a nuture reserve in Sicily.

More radio interviews followed with the BBC website, teletext and the YEP devoting space (and pictures) to the story. Plenty of unofficial Leeds United websites also covered it, including one in the Czech Republic!

I have also received a variety of letters, many offering me support and thanking me, while a couple accused me of wasting tax-payers money by focussing on an insignifcant issue.

In the wider scale of things the issue is clearly insignificant but I wrote the letter on the beach (Blackberrys can be very useful) on my holiday. So, the real cost to the taxpayer was the price of a postage stamp. I think that most people would agree that 44p spent opposing corruption in sport is hardly excessive!

Equally irritating and illuminating, is the fact that this story earned such news coverage. Even a quick peak at my website illustrates the different subjects I have spent far more time working on over the past year. Yet, whether it is helping to make the EU more efficient, consumer protection, the environment, education or a myriad of other matters none are given anywhere near the media coverage a minor story about football receives!