Quote of the week
Donald Trump: upset after Colombian club Atlético Nacional rejected his $100m takeover bid. Trump – also still pushing his plan to wall off Mexico to keep South America’s “rapist” drug dealer migrants out of the US – told the New York Post: “Nacional want $150m … It’s unacceptable. Maybe they think we’re stupid.’’
Also staying vigilant
José Mourinho: wise to the first signs of this season’s anti-Chelsea media campaign. Mourinho, who called for more protection for Eden Hazard in July, told reporters asking about his treatment of Dr Eva Carneiro: “You shouldn’t ask. Don’t make another question or I go. Think twice about the next question or I go… You want to speak about that? I go.”
• Mourinho’s self-assessment when he returned to England in June 2013: “I’m relaxed now. I am the Happy One. Sometimes people talk about older people negatively, but experience in life is something very important, particularly if you use it in the right way. I analyse myself every day as a manager, as a leader, as a member of a club. I just want to be calm.”
Boldest boycott
Hull owner Assem Allam, boycotting all his own club’s matches this season after the FA blocked his rebrand twice. Allam said FA “amateurs” failed to see his plan to change Hull City to Hull Tigers makes sense because “it’s shorter … Look at Google, Apple, Twitter.”
Fresh start latest
Among the early contenders to replace Sepp next year as Fifa’s new dawn rises: Qatar fan Michel Platini; South Korean billionaire Chung Mong-joon, whose brother Chung Mong-koo was convicted in 2007 for embezzling £53m into a bribery slush fund; and Liberia’s Musa Bility, who denied he won his 2010 FA election by paying $500 gifts to voters. Bility told local media: “Fifa needs an honest and a fair new beginning. We have to start afresh.”
Also from the football family this summer:
• Pakistan, 17 July: FA president Faisal Saleh Hayat denies embezzlement, calls colleagues “nonentities” and fights a Lahore High Court ruling dissolving his administration. 29 July: Hayat appointed head of the Asian Football Confederation’s legal committee until 2019.
• Greece, June: Olympiakos owner Vangelis Marinakis promises “no impact on the club” after being banned from football following his arrest for alleged blackmail, extortion, bribery, fraud and having an ex-referee’s bakery blown up. He denies wrongdoing.
Plus: toughest client
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb president Zdravko Mamic, addressing the prosecutor during his bail hearing in July pending trial for fraud and bribery: “I’ll butcher you”. Local media say Mamic’s lawyer “intervened to clarify that his client ‘was not making threats’.”
Loulou news
France: Aiming to take a more conciliatory approach this season, Montpellier owner Louis Nicollin – weighing up Marcelo Bielsa’s surprise resignation at Marseille: “I never liked him. Why don’t I? Because he’s a dickhead, that’s all. He never looks you in the eye.”
PR news: busiest summer
Lionel Messi - making a £315k donation to Unicef live on TV in Argentina last week, a month after visiting Gabon as guest of dictator Ali Bongo. The Human Rights Foundation said Messi’s trip provided “PR services” to “a kleptocratic regime that refuses to investigate the ritual murder of children”; Gabon denied paying £2.5m to make it happen.
Transfer window news
• Clause of the week: Mario Balotelli, on course for a six-figure loyalty bonus if he can avoid being sold. (2014: Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre celebrates selling £50,000 of Balotelli shirts on the day they signed him for £16m. Ayre told a “How to Run a Club Successfully” seminar: “In the past we didn’t capitalise on such opportunities. Those days are long gone.”)
• Best plans: 5 Aug, Mauricio Pochettino, in Munich for the Audi Cup, unhappy with media talk over Roberto Soldado: “Soldado is our player. He’s in my plans. He only didn’t come here because he has a back problem, but he’s in my plans.” 14 Aug: He’s in Villarreal’s plans.
• Dream move of the week: Xherdan Shaqiri, accepting a £16.9m contract from Stoke for football reasons. “For me this is the perfect club.”
Most amicable split
July: Southern League Bashley sacking new manager David Stride after 40 days and two pre-season defeats. Chairman Tim Allan: “David’s been a pleasure to deal with … I’d like to thank David for his short, brief spell with us and wish him well for the future.” Stride: “It’s absolute codswallop.”
Most understanding
Russia: Premier League head Sergei Cheban, reflecting on July’s bad press after the league’s official “Miss Charming” beauty pageant winner Olga Kuzkova was outed as a Neo-Nazi online. “It was unlucky for Olga, she’s a very charming girl.”
• Cheban’s previous best stand on a big public issue: Nov 2014 – filmed at the press launch of his new Premier League “Stop Swearing” T-shirt campaign whispering to his PR head: “Where’s the fucking Stop Swearing T-shirt I asked for? You’re going fucking slowly.”
Plus: Dream of the week
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister Katia Aveiro, appealing for public support for her plan to appear at Eurovision 2016. Media previews of her 2013 debut track “Nonstop Boom” said her live performances “will not leave anyone indifferent”.
