With internationals still sitting firmly at the front of the football agenda, most papers are (perhaps a tad prematurely) beginning to predict how next year's World Cup finals will unfold.

Kevin McCarra at the Guardian focuses on the fact that among the so-called World Cup"contenders", only England will not play a midweek friendly, despite having only one more match scheduled before the end of the Premier League season. Could this be restricting Capello's ability to assemble his side for the finals?

"The kindest comment to be made about England's loss to Brazil on Saturday was that the squad could use some practice. They will not be getting it. A friendly in March is the only preparation the players will have before the close of the Premier League programme. The expected couple of games prior to the start of the World Cup will simply bring such occasions into even deeper disrepute.

Other nations have constructed more extensive programmes that will be to their advantage. Nearly all the sides above England in the Fifa rankings have a match arranged for this week as well. Germany are the exception and play only one friendly in this window, as they cancelled last Saturday's game with Chile following the death of the goalkeeper Robert Enke, but the team will return to the field against Ivory Coast tomorrow.

Were the players still together, they would now be busy trying to correct their work in the areas where they faltered. It is unimaginable that Fabio Capello would not be emphasising once more the absolute necessity of keeping possession. His exasperation was vivid when Wayne Rooney, with the match scarcely under way, attempted difficult passes that presented the ball to the planet's best side."

Elsewhere, one nation that won't be at the finals in South Africa is shambolic Scotland. George Burley was given his marching orders yesterday and Graham Spiers at the Times wasted little time in pointing out a list of problems with the Scottish game.

"George Burley has gone - done in by the Scottish Football Association after one setback too many. If, like me, you have a perverse love of Scottish football, then you'll know this Burley palaver is just the latest in a long line of afflictions. The name of Scottish football should be Job.

Below, set out in no particular order, is my top ten of things that are wrong with Scottish football. If anyone actually knows of a cure, simply drop me a line at The Times and I'll kindly pass it on to Gordon "Smudger" Smith at the SFA.

1. Rangers and Celtic - culpable!
Sometime around 2001 Sir David Murray, the Rangers chairman, said to me: "Barry Ferguson, our one real player of quality produced by this club in ten years - not good enough." Rangers and Celtic have not done their bit for the Scottish game by requiring "ready-made imports" to come in and appease their fans, rather than take the time and patience to rear their own. Good on Hibernian, a club with an excellent record of nurturing Scottish talent, but the Old Firm? Guilty."