THERE’S a New York flavour running through my opening, modestly-titled, ‘Smart Alex’ entry – and it tastes like Pavlova.

Irina Pavlova that is, president of the company who own basketball team the Brooklyn Nets, was talking at a Leaders in Sport conference at Stamford Bridge last week.

This brought together ‘Game Changers’ from major sports across the globe to discuss women in sport.

One number to leap out at me – besides only three of the best paid athletes in the world being female – was women’s sport only accounts for seven per cent of all sport media coverage.

No doubt the Guardian’s coverage is largely male-dominated, what with Wolves and the Yellows, but we have some extremely talented female athletes and the key for all is to increase their exposure as the Rio 2016 Olympics draws closer.

After all, 500,000 of the 750,000 adults to take up sport in Britain following London 2012 are women.

But Pavlova’s message remains prevalent,‘hard work, persistence and resilience – universal qualities for men and women to succeed’ – it’s hard to dismiss advice from one of Google’s former top dogs.

While the Russian was in London, a Frenchman was suing another New York-based franchise.

Warrington Guardian: Director Ken Loach on set with Eric Cantona

Yes, no stranger to controversy, Eric Cantona says New York Cosmos owe him nearly $1million in unpaid wages after he was sacked as their director of soccer following his arrest for punching a photographer in a London pub last year.

Well, when the seagulls follow the trawler...

Despite Eric the King’s grand depart these are exciting times for ‘soccer’ in the Big Apple, although not so much Cosmos – a club once boasting Pele, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer on their roster.

Instead fans were going crazy for ‘the derby with no history’, where ex-Plymouth Argyle striker Bradley Wright-Phillips bagged twice for the Red Bulls to outshine World Cup winner David Villa’s New York City FC in a 2-1 win.

If only the newly-formed City had a goalscoring midfielder in the ilk of, say, Frank Lampard?

But 'having no history’ (as Lampard’s time at Chelsea would have taught him) means having little to sing about.

Luckily, it’s rumoured, NYC fans earlier distributed song sheets at the beginning of the season in a bid to drum up some atmosphere.

Warrington Guardian: Tim Sherwood said he was proud of his team's performance against Arsenal and believes they did not deserve to lose the game

Back in England it’s the FA Cup final this weekend. But while I can’t decide who I’d least like to win, Arsenal or Tim Sherwood, it does present the perfect opportunity to roll out my favourite bit of sports trivia.

Sunderland did it in 1979 and Villa did it in 1981, but who did it in 1980?