Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, the late Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, once famously said. But he went on to say that he disagreed - it was much more important than that.

A similar sense of sombre urgency permeates coverage of the collapse of the Football League's multi-million pound sponsorship case against the ITV Digital companies.

The Guardian, the Independent and the Mirror agree that scores of lower division clubs could now meet the Grim Reaper.

But this time the killer quote comes not from Shankly but the less well-known chairman of Millwall, Theo Paphitis.

The Football League is archaic and amateurish, he tells the Daily Mail. It is a billion pound business, but if I had a kebab shop I would not let them run it.

Embryo wrangle

United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is apparently similarly unimpressed with the ideas coming from his military commanders on how to oust the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein.

The Daily Telegraph reports that he believes the planners are being too cautious and has sent them back to the drawing board to think "out of the box".

Mr Rumsfeld and the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, are said to favour a swift and devastating strike and think the commanders are overestimating the threat posed by Iraqi forces.

A woman who has cancer is considering taking groundbreaking legal action to establish her ownership of six embryos stored in a clinic, according to the Sun.

Fat cats

Eggs were taken from Natalie Evans's diseased ovaries and fertilised by her fianc�, before the couple split up.

Ms Evans, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, says implanting the embryos is her only hope of ever having her own children.

But her former fianc� is reported to be blocking their use unless she signs a legal agreement saying he will not be liable to support any children that are born.

The financial support being enjoyed by the UK's top executives features in several papers, including the Times.

The paper says an independent survey by the Labour Research Department of directors earning more than �500,000 found that their average pay rose by more than 16% last year.

The top executives earned an average of �882,000 - or 38 times the average worker's annual pay.

Brief break

Then again, who is to say they did not deserve their salaries just as much as Howard and Brenda Bell deserve a holiday?

Is this Britain's hardest working couple? asks the Daily Mail headline, beside a picture of the newsagent and his wife from West Yorkshire.

Mr Bell, the paper says, has taken just two days off in almost 32 years, while Mrs Bell has had the luxury of five. They are due to retire on Monday.

I guess we are both from the old school, says Mrs Bell. It is going to be difficult not getting up at 0400 every day.

The Daily Telegraph might, however, have just the job to lure them - or anyone else with a sweet tooth - back into the world of work.

It says the upmarket store Fortnum & Mason is currently recruiting for a top post. Salary �35,000 per annum. Job? Travelling the world, tasting and buying chocolate.