Long-term economic plan of the week
George Osborne’s 30% local authority cuts – coming this week, two months after he handed China £3m to boost their grassroots football: “Grassroots football plays an instrumental role in UK life. It is brilliant to be able to spread that.”
• £215m: amount already cut from councils’ annual spending on grassroots sport since 2010. (David Cameron’s 2011 FA Cup final programme notes: “From local parks and schools to clubs across the land, the dream of the Cup final has helped inspire a fantastic legacy of grassroots football in this country … Through football we can re-engage young people who are going through hard times. It offers them the hope, and the confidence, they need.”)
Fifa’s week: tidiest journey
2014: Nepal FA president Ganesh Thapa meets Sepp in Zurich to discuss how best to use his Fifa development money. 2015: Thapa banned for 10 years for corruption, with an embezzlement inquiry ongoing. He denies wrongdoing.
• Still making it on to Thapa’s official online FA profile list of career landmarks: “Chairman, AFC Fair play Committee”; “Member, Fifa Disciplinary Committee”; “The National Youth welfare award”; and “Gorkha Dakshin Bahu III (Most Prestigious Award), presented by Late King His Majesty Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev”. Not making the cut: his ban and £13,000 fine.
• Thapa’s perspective on the sanctions, after a month which also featured five Nepal players denying treason charges over alleged match-fixing and his U16s disqualified from the AFC Championship for fielding over-age players: “I spent 35 years for Nepali football. I’m very disappointed.”
Also signing off
Laos FA president Viphet Sihachakr. 2011: Visits Zurich to award Sepp a Laos Friendship Medal. Sepp: “I am very honoured and touched … What is more precious than friendship?” 2015: Banned for two years for bribe-taking.
Stat of the week
168: Number of the 209 Fifa member associations who fail to make their annual financial reports public. 87, including Qatar, scored zero in the Transparency International research rankings; one in five have no website.
Twist of the week
12 Nov: Chile’s FA president Sergio Jadue takes a 30-day leave of absence “for health reasons”. 18 Nov: Flies to the US to help the FBI with their inquiries.
Plus: award of the week
Trinidad: Jack Warner, 72, still fighting extradition, awarded a Masters in business administration at a graduation ceremony at the Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain. He told Trinidad’s Newsday: “The day one stops learning, one dies. I do not consider myself to be an average person.”
Jack Warner graduates with MBA. pic.twitter.com/4ZpObJFoEn
— Elizabeth Williams (@EWilliamstv6) November 8, 2015
Other news: best example
Italy: Juventus “actively collaborating with police” after an alleged “racist brawl” among parents at an Under-10s game left two adults in hospital. Regional official Gianfranco Porqueddu says banning parents from games “is the way to handle such idiots. I remain of the view that the best athletes are orphans”.
Biggest setback
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb owner Zdravko Mamic – re-arrested over alleged tax evasion, bribery and organised crime, which he denies. Mamic’s previous denials – 2010: telling a journalist: “Lies! You lie and can’t stop lying. You dirty monster, you never wash. Bastard, bastard, miserable bastard”; and 2011: assessing hecklers at a press conference: “I’ll maul you, one by one. You donkeys better pray to God that I stay in here, because when I leave I’ll beat you like cats.”
Task of the week
Steve Clarke: looking to ease Reading fans’ “angst and anger” after he spent the week in talks with Fulham. Clarke’s day-one message when he joined Reading last December: “It may be your CV that gets you into a club, but it’s what you do when you get there that counts.”
Last week’s other manager news:
• 13 Nov: Halifax chairman David Bosomworth says manager Darren Kelly needs time and financial backing. “We will do our best to support Darren in the best way we can.” 17 Nov: Sacks him.
• Qatar, 19 Nov: Al Gharafa coach Péricles Chamusca says he’s relaxed about criticism of his first eight games. “You just have to stay focused. After that you can be sure: God will give you what you deserve.” 20 Nov: God sacks him.
• Turkey, 11 Nov: Galatasaray president Dursun Ozbek plays down talk around coach Hamza Hamzaoglu’s future: “I respect criticism, but not when it’s as irrational as this. To be clear, as long as I am at this club, Hamzaoglu stays.” 18 Nov: Hamzaoglu goes; Ozbek stays.
Pledge of the week
Spain: Celtic de Pulianas player Rubén Gómez Bustamante, sacked after referee Jesús Lorenzo Rodríguez accused him of “attempting to strike my assistant with his penis, having taken it out in advance”. Bustamante: “At no point did it leave my pants. I’ll fight this.”
Most unmoved
Romania: Metalul Resita players staging an in-match sit-down protest with a “Stop Slavery” banner after going unpaid for up to 10 months. Owner Catalin Rufa. “That’s life, they can sit if they want, we’ll play the kids instead. I’m done with so-called footballers.”
Plus: making it right
Venezuela: Diego Maradona, undergoing gastric surgery to slim down for his wedding to Rocío Oliva, 25 – a year after he falsely accused her of theft. His previous best gesture of reconciliation: having a tattoo tribute to Oliva – the word “bitch” – inked on his chest. Reports said Oliva was “very moved by his token of love”.
