Inside World Football - Page 1731 of 2205 - For the Business of Football

Matt Scott: What should football care of the child stars who fade?

“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.”  William Blake

When Barcelona received a two-window transfer ban for their trade in minors last week, the reaction among the internet wits was predictable. “Must be horrible,” was the gist of it, “a life at Barça earning millions to play football. Wish I was suffering like them.”

But that kind of commentary misses the target as spectacularly as when Lionel Messi hit the bar from the penalty spot against Chelsea in the Champions League a couple of years ago.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: Fit and proper? But is this ‘test’ hiding the real issue?

Whether Massimo Cellino is allowed to remain an owner of Leeds remains an open question. The board of the Football League meet on Thursday to decide whether to let him run Leeds.

The story has all the makings of a modern soap opera. Cellino buys 75% of Leeds in February. But then he is disqualified by the League under its fit and proper test for owners because of Cellino’s conviction for tax evasion in a Sardinia court.

Archive

Portugal Telecom: one team, two brands; one competition, two genders

Porto

By Mark Baber
April 9 – Portugal Telecom (PT), Portugal’s largest telecommunications services provider, has launched two separate but innovative marketing initiatives over the last two weeks. Players from PT sponsored clubs have been displaying different PT brands on their shirts, depending on their age, whilst the company is separately sponsoring a mixed five-a-side football competition in schools.

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Czech club SC Znojmo eyes €3.3 million in subsidies for stadium upgrade

SC Znojmo

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 9 – With the aim of securing funds to modernise its stadium, SC Znojmo is currently in talks with the Czech Ministry of Education to obtain CZK 90 million (€3.3 million) in subsidies.

Archive

PSG sign Huawei and move to build their platform in the Far East

PSG and Huawei

By Andrew Warshaw
April 9 – Paris St Germain are making a major push into the Chinese market both to enhance their own ambitions to become one of European football’s superpowers and also to take on the Premier League. The French club has just signed a new sponsorship deal with Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and also planning to play at least one game in China during the close season.

Africa

Nigeria prepare for Brazil 2014 and start by paying Keshi and his team

stephen keshi

By Paul Nicholson
April 9 – The almost-traditional and recurring Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) financial crisis that occurs every major international championship when it comes to paying officials and players, may have been resolved, at least in part, in advance of the Brazil World Cup.

Archive

Cellino in at Leeds, sacks his 36th manager and targets Premier League

Leeds United

By Andrew Warshaw
April 9 – Italian entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has completed his takeover of iconic English club Leeds United, according to his lawyers, in a deal worth more than £30 million – much of it used to pay off the Championship club’s debts.

Archive

German politician goes ‘green’ in criticism of FIFA, Brazil and Qatar

Gerd Muller

April 9 – Germany’s new Development Minister is the latest politician to call on FIFA to strip Qatar of hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, the first member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet to do so.

Archive

Ding defense keeps him off the stand in Singaporean match-fixing trial

Eric Ding Si Yang

April 9 – Alleged Singaporean match fixer Eric Ding Si Yang, accused of bribing three Lebanese match officials a year ago in return for rigging games, has chosen not to testify at his long-running corruption trial.

Archive

Diarra set to return to Locomotiv training NOT to Syria as a jihadist

Lassana Diarra

By Richard van Poortvliet
April 9 – Lokomotiv Moscow have hit out at speculation from the British tabloid the Daily Mirror that their midfielder, Lassana Diarra, was about to quit the club to join the war in Syria.

Archive

Fingers ready, new survey predicts a blockbuster Twitter World Cup

By Tom Parsons
April 8 – According to a new study from GlobalWebIndex, 90% of UK Twitter users will tune in to watch the World Cup in Brazil this summer.

Archive

Hall takes the reins at Supponor as DBRLive plans global roll-out

April 8 – Supponor, the digital replacement advertising board specialists, have appointed Roger Hall as the company’s CEO, taking over from Chris Buckley who will become a non-executive board director and will continue in a consultancy role.

Archive

Exclusive: Serbs set to challenge Kosovo’s FIFA-backed move to autonomy

Kosovo shirt

By Andrew Warshaw
April 8 – Serbia’s football authorities, who have been keeping a low public profile ever since Kosovo were given permission by FIFA to play friendly matches, have given the biggest hint to date that they will challenge the breakaway territory’s new-found status.

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CSKA Sofia share offer stalls as IPO take-up falls short of targets

CSKA trade

By Alexander Krassimirov
April 8 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia registered their slowest day on the stock exchange yesterday, with the club only managing to sell 3,380 shares of their newly available shares. Having started with high hopes, the sales have dwindled with concerns now that the club will miss its sales target.

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Now Romanian police pull in former league chief for tax fraud on TV rights

Dumitru Dragomir

April 8 – One month after former Romanian footballing icon Gheorghe Popescu was jailed for tax evasion and money laundering, prosecutors have detained the one-time head of the country’s Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir in connection with avoiding tax linked to the sale of broadcasting rights.