The FWA book panellists - chairman Brian Scovell, Patrick Barclay, Mike Collett and Glenn Moore - tied 2-2 at their final meeting so with the co-operation of the organiser David Willis, brother of Bob, we honoured two books, "Cantona, the Rebel Who Would be King" by FWA member Philippe Auclair and "Feet of the Chameleon, The Story of African Football" by Ian Hawkey.

The first tie in FWA history took place in 1969 when Dave Mackay and Tony Book received the same number of votes. The chairman told an audience of 300 in the ballroom three levels down in the brand new 4-star Park Plaza Westminister Hotel overlooking Parliament on March 11 "Both contenders produced a brilliantly researched and beautifully written masterbook - in the words of Mike Collett who had an operation two days ago and we wish him well.

"If one of these books had been placed second it would have been very sad. I loved Philippe's cricketing analogies. He is the only Frenchman I know who knows cricket and I understand he knows all about the story of the Sarkozy marriage. Ian has come up with a very original book and it arrives just in time for Africa's first World Cup."

Mihir Bose was heckled by some publishers after he criticised the use of ghost writers. The book which his panel chose in the Best Autobiography section - "Open: An Autobiographhy" "by" Andre Agassi - was written by a former Pulitzer Prize winner.