Cambridge United boss Jimmy Quinn feels qualified to criticise system

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Three days later, Avram Grant's team of Chelsea millionaires will be watched by an audience of 250 million as they take on Manchester United in Moscow for the right to be called the champions of Europe.

Yet, ironically, it is former Northern Ireland striker Quinn and not Grant who holds the UEFA Pro Licence, the qualification that is supposed to be mandatory for managers in top-flight football.

'It's ridiculous,' said the 48-year-old Cambridge boss. 'This is the only country in Europe where you manage a team without being qualified.

'I can assure you that Avram Grant doesn't know any more than me. The Pro- Licence is a proper qualification, a diploma which took me two years to get and which I renewed last year. If I can spend the time to do it despite having been an international player, then people who have never played the game should, too.'

Grant is studying for the diploma, having been given special dispensation to manage without holding the qualification, a privilege which has been given to other Premier League managers such as Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate.

Quinn added: 'The Pro- Licence is all geared to coaching players at the top level. My ambition right now is to take Cambridge into League One but my aim is to manage at the top level.'

Quinn has transformed Cambridge from a team who ensured safety on the final day of last season into a side who have been in the top five of the Blue Square Premier all season and finished second to runaway champions Aldershot.

He will pass on what he has learned from two contrasting Wembley experiences — a 4-3 final play-off defeat by Bolton when he was player-manager of Reading in 1995 and a penalty shoot-out win over Aldershot in the 2004 Conference play-offs with Shrewsbury — to help his side try to beat Exeter today.