The week in football: Regime rebranding; Grêmio burgers; useless losers; plus the danger of flamboyant women
New man of the week
Azerbaijan dictator Ilham “Corleone” Aliyev, taking a two-pronged approach to rebranding: jailing his regime’s critics, and extending his £10m Atlético Madrid shirt deal to 2015.
Social change news
New last week on Fifa.com: 1) A £1.8m “Football For Hope” pledge to fund 108 global social development projects – 25 of them in Brazil, where Fifa spent £5.2m on a 90-minute World Cup draw TV show last month, in a £1.7m state-funded temporary tent.
2) Coverage of Brazil president Dilma Rousseff’s speech in Zurich, on why spending £6.6bn and evicting 19,000 Rio favela families made sense. “The World Cup of World Cups will use the power of football to tackle key matters, and leave an important social legacy.”
Plus: most hopeful
Jérôme Champagne, eyeing a run at the 2015 Fifa presidential election. “I do hope this process will be fair and transparent.”
Other news: rude health
8%: The average increase in revenue last year for Europe’s 20 richest clubs, according to Deloitte – six English sides making up £1.4bn of the £4.4bn total.
40%: The total decrease since 2000 in Premier League grants to the Football Foundation, to £12m a year.
£10,000: Amount Hereford need to raise per month after avoiding being wound up last week.
Chairman of the week
Blackpool’s Karl Oyston: unmoved by fan pressure. 8 Jan: “I will never run the club by mob rule – never have and never will. There’s only one judge and that’s me. Over the years there have been plenty of calls for managers’ heads and I’ve never bowed to them. I’m not about to change my policy now … Getting behind the manager is the only option people have. And that includes me.” 21 Jan: Sacks him.
• Also staying resolute: 13 Jan: Real Betis president Miguel Guillén, shrugging off talk that he could sack coach Juan Carlos Garrido, eight games after hiring him. “Garrido is bringing a lot of work, knowledge and freshness. Why change it? Dispensing with his services would be rash.” 19 Jan: “We wish him luck for the future.”
Business news: loyalty
Brazil: Grêmio say opening 90 Grêmio-branded fast food outlets over five years will “reward fans’ brand loyalty”, “create a revenue stream never harnessed by any other club worldwide” and “make much more money than selling shirts”. Marketing head Beto Carvalho. “We’ve got an engaged crowd. We must turn that into results.”
Respect campaign
Last week’s discipline highlights:
• Holland: Roda’s Krisztián Nemeth explaining his five game ban for reacting to a penalty call by “chest-barging the referee while shouting ‘bastard’, ‘dick’ and words of similar import”. “I’ve just let myself go emotionally.”
• Uruguay: Nacional and Peñarol players following up their league’s anti-hooliganism message with an “unprecedented brawl”, leading to nine player arrests and multiple long-term bans. Peñarol official Carlos Sánchez: “The media have overplayed this.”
• Portugal: Second division Leixões reacting after their coach and four players were sent off in a game against Sporting B. “The refereeing undermined the hard work of the Leixões professionals.”
Meanwhile: no regrets
Brazil: Novo Hamburgo’s Luiz Henrique, weighing up online criticism over a studs-to-chest challenge on Internacional’s Raphinha. “I only have two things to say: 1, Football is a contact sport. 2, If you don’t like that, play volleyball. That is all, thank you.”
Best motivational speakers
South Africa: Sports minister Fikile Mbalula rallying the national team after defeat to Nigeria. “What a useless bunch of losers, a bunch of unbearable, useless individuals. We do indeed have a crisis of monumental proportions.”
France: Bordeaux general manager Alain Deveseleer on their defeat to fifth-tier L’île Rousse: “We’re ridiculous, grotesque, mediocre, shabby, the lowest of the low. We are of an incredible, unfathomable mediocrity… [They must] look in the mirror and be ashamed. If this isn’t the case, I no longer understand football, or life.”
Transfer news
“We don’t want those players [who turned down offers to join], simple as. We only want players who are going to go out there and put their hand on their heart and say: “I am here for the club’.” – West Ham’s Kevin Nolan, banned for seven games in the last two months.
Best upbringing
Ghana assistant coach Maxwell Konadu, denying he extorted money from players in return for caps. “These are outrageous shameful falsehoods … just a plot to run me down. I will never extort monies from any player. That is not how I was brought up.”
Fine of the week
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb owner Zdravko Mamic, fined £14,000 for asking lawyer Ivica Crnic during a court hearing last year: “Why are you st-st-st-stuttering? Liars stutter. You’re a monster, a conniver; you’re not your father’s son, you’re a pathetic mouse.” Mamic: “I meant nothing by it.”
Plus: love news
Ghana: ex-Marseille striker Arthur Moses, warning players to avoid “flamboyant women” after a run of high-profile breakups. “I am warning the stars of today to be wary of their wives. Look at my wife. I have built two houses for her, another for her mother, now the court wants me to give her my three other houses and build her a shop … Young boys must be careful.”
- World Cup 2018
- Blackpool
- Atlético Madrid
- Football politics
- Finances
- Fifa
David Hills
theguardian.com