Welcome to this week's Off the Ball, which would rather like hot weather to come back

The power of the chant
Just seven days ago I wrote that the chant "2-0, to the Camb-er-idge" hadn't been heard at the Abbey in ages. Then what happened? In the very next game, what should the Habbin sing midway through the first half but "2-0, to the Camb-er-idge".

Right, it worked last week so let's try again - altogether now: "Going up, going up, going up..." Well, it's worth a try.

Incidentally, to the U's fan standing behind me in the Habbin on Saturday who'd flown all the way from the USA for the Rushden game - if the U's play like that every time you watch them, for heaven's sake move back to this country now!

Money, money, money
Like many Cambridge fans, I read with interest the BBC website article about Exeter City persuading a number of teams to waive nearly half of the £82,462 they owed to them. If you missed the article, Cambridge were one of only two out of 15 clubs that refused Exeter's request, insisting on repayment in full of the £938 owed.

Exeter's debts to individual clubs varied, but were generally in four figures, with Portsmouth being owed a whopping £27,406. But what caught OTB's eye was the massive debt owed by the West Country team to Rochdale - a full seven quid, of which Dale generously wrote off £3.50.

Now, for one club to owe another club £27,000 is understandable - an unpaid transfer fee, perhaps, or an unfulfilled sell-on clause, or possible gate receipts. But how can a club end up owing £7? What possible transaction could have left Exeter with a debt of that, er, magnitude? OTB has been scratching its head, and has come up with some possible explanations.

1) They had a friendly and the crowd really did consist of one bloke and his dog, and the dog got in for free (or maybe the dog paid and the bloke got in for free)

2) Rochdale's manager bought a copy of former Exeter honorary director Michael Jackson's latest CD from his Exeter counterpart for £13. However, the Dale boss only had a £20 note, and Exeter didn't have any change, so gave Dale the CD plus an IOU note for the remaining seven quid.

3) Exeter offered Rochdale £7 compensation after an alleged incident involving Wacko and the Rochdale mascot (allegedly)

4) Exeter played an away match at Spotland, then realised they didn't have enough petrol money for the bus home, so borrowed £7 off their hosts

5) £7 covered the cost of spoons ruined by another of Exeter's celeb ex-directors, Uri Geller, over lunch in the boardroom

6) Yet another of Exeter's big-name supporters, Dave Prowse, aka Darth Vader, actually did eat all the pies but didn't have enough dosh to pay for them.

Anyway, whatever the reason for the debt, hats off to Exeter. After I finish this article, I'm going to write to my bank and ask them if they'll write off half my overdraft. Wish me luck.

The shame in Spain
In recent weeks OTB has celebrated the world of football chants, so it was with particular horror that I watched and listened to events in Madrid last Wednesday. In fact, I turned my TV off, as it was just too sickening to keep it on.

Now, everyone recognises that what happened in Spain was disgusting. But in hindsight I can't help thinking that it was inevitable after the Spanish FA took no action against manager Luis Aragones following his racist remarks against Thierry Henry last month.

Instead of taking appropriate action, they simply ignored the remarks and allowed him to get away with these obscenities.

They then compounded this by ignoring the racist chants at Tuesday's U21 match, describing the crowd behaviour as "normal and civilised".

In other words, the Spanish FA gave the green light to the moronic racists by sending out the message that racism would be tolerated. As such, they are every bit as responsible for those nauseating chants as the idiots who made them. What is needed now is radical action by the Spanish authorities to re-educate or punish these idiots fans, and for FIFA to take proper action, not impose a tiny fine that will hurt about as much as a pinprick.

In the meantime, if anything good could have come out of Wednesday, it was the reaction of football supporters to those events. That so many people were genuinely sickened and angered by what they heard can only be encouraging in the fight against racism.

Record breaker
In the week that David Beckham revealed his goal of winning 100 England caps, his ambition has been dwarfed by the achievement of another superstar, Ali Daei. What do you mean you've never heard of him? Really? He's huge in Iran.

You see, in the course of his country's 7-0 win over Laos last week, Ali Daei became international football's most prolific striker and the first player to score 100 goals. So come on Becks, what do you say to that?

Best wishes
Our best wishes go to Mansfield's Scott McNiven, who has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. I'm sure everyone at CUFC wishes Scott a swift and full recovery.

Any thoughts on how Exexter finished up owing £7? Or background info on Ali Daei? If so, we'd love to know - drop us a line at cufcofftheball@aol.com

Neil Cole

If you missed Neil's previous 'Off The Ball' columns, you can find them here

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