Quote of the week
Massimo Cellino – reacting to his third ethics ban in two years, one of them overturned: “I am not guilty. I feel that I’m only guilty of one thing: protecting Leeds United since I took charge.”
• Defending Cellino, who was dubbed a man of “marked criminal tendencies capable of using every kind of deception” in a 2013 Italian arrest warrant – former Leeds owner Ken Bates, putting the breach of regulations down to “ignorance, not misdemeanours … Italian ways are so different and when he came he had nobody [to advise him] … Foreigners are seen as an easy target for the con men.”
Man of the week
Aug 2012: Kirsten Nematandani, South Africa FA president and Fifa Fair Play and Social Responsibility executive, hosts a two-day Interpol “Integrity in Sport” workshop - attacking match-fixing as “a cancer that robs the game of its innocence. This is a wonderful chance to learn more about this threat.”
Dec 2016: Nematandani banned for five years for match-fixing.
• Also cleaning up: Uganda’s Police Football Club, run by Interpol director Asan Kasingye, sacking two players for fixing. Kasingye: “There is vice in our club.”
Meanwhile: more football family news
• Russia’s deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko – member of Fifa’s integrity committee and its “For the Good of the Game” anti-corruption taskforce – denying he oversaw “unprecedented” state-sponsored doping: “This is another attack on Russian sport.”
• Extradited former Peru FA head Manuel Burga, released on bail on disputed fraud and racketeering charges, pictured out shopping in Manhattan. “I’m really feeling relaxed. I have my lawyer here with me.”
• And Sepp Blatter – looking for the positives after losing an appeal against his six-year ban: “I have experienced much in my 41 years in Fifa ... I look back with gratitude to all the years, in which I was able to realise my ideals.”
Other news: kicking it out
Italy: Lazio’s Senad Lulic, denying he deliberately used a racist street-pedlar stereotype after saying Roma’s Antonio Rüdiger “used to sell socks and belts in Stuttgart”. Lulic: “White people sell socks too.”
• Assessing Lulic for a potential extended ban: Italy FA head Carlo Tavecchio, who launched his “Racists? A bad race” zero-tolerance campaign in 2015 - a year after he called a black player a “banana eater”. Tavecchio, who served a six-month ban, denied racism.
Sharpest protest
Germany: Uli Hoeness – back as Bayern president after serving 18 months for a €28.5m tax fraud – unhappy with English football taking an “unfair” financial advantage from TV rights: “There’s no longer a level playing field.”
Manager news: last week’s moves
• Germany, 29 Nov – Darmstadt president Rüdiger Fritsch on coach Norbert Meier. “Listen, if sacking a coach guaranteed success, every club would do it every four weeks. Studies show 99.1% of the time it achieves nothing. Other clubs around us did it and did it help them? No. It’s not a panacea like people think. Calmness and consistency – that’s the answer.” 6 Dec – Sacks him.
• 5 Sept, Altrincham chairman Grahame Rowley: “After due diligence and a lot of discussion, the board felt that Jim Harvey was the No1 candidate to steady the ship ... He presented a long-term plan.” 6 Dec: “Jim was very disappointed when I told him.”
• Plus: Sven-Goran Eriksson, joining Chinese second-tier club Shenzhen FC for “a new challenge”. (2010, agent Athole Still: “For so long the media have tried to portray Sven as a greedy man, that he’s only in it for the money. Nothing could be further from the truth.”)
Fewest excuses
Argentina: Sarmiento Ayacucho president Carlos Didio, banned from his own ground for alleged death threats to a referee who was beaten by players and fans. Didio: “We’re all about football at this club, not violence. No excuses. But referees hurt us, too.”
Best impact
Cardiff’s Sol Bamba: clashing with Neil Warnock after being sent off on Saturday, two weeks after Warnock hailed his impact: “I wouldn’t want anyone else. I don’t think there’s anyone better. He’s got it all.”
Rough week for
Romania: Cluj striker Billel Omrani, booked for a foul, sent off for applauding the booking, hospitalised with a torn tendon after punching through a glass door, and “heavily fined for stupidity”. Coach Vasile Miriuta: “He wasn’t being professional.”
Plus: most resilient
Greece: Vatera striker Thanasis Takidis, weighing up the global attention after his 30cm miss went viral. “In that moment I suffered overconfidence and lost my balance. But I can handle these comments. I’ve committed no crime.”
