Football man of the week
Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang: spending £23,000 on Africa Cup of Nations tickets for poor fans. Obiang, accused of making his £370m fortune from 35 years of brutal kleptocracy, told media: “Let those who have the means help the poor.”
• The Obiang family’s previous best football moment: 2012 – son Teodorin denying he used embezzled public money to give a $1m bonus to the national team – part of what US prosecutors called his “shameless looting” habit. Obiang, forced to surrender $30m of his US assets last year including most of his Michael Jackson memorabilia, said his wealth was legitimate: “I’ve just been lucky in business. I like to live well.”
• Among those standing up against the deprivation and repression in the host nation last week: Congo’s French coach Claude Le Roy. “The hotel is terrible. I don’t want a big five star hotel – just something very clean.”
Speech of the week
“Football is a game, not a product; football is a sport, not a market; football is a spectacle, not a business … It is a sport of the people, not the elite … It must resist financial temptations [and] it must be guided by sporting interests, not commercial or political.” – Qatar 2022 voter Michel Platini.
The week in democracy
Last week’s voting highlights:
1) Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi running unopposed in the African confederation’s executive elections, and taking legal action to clear his name after “sick in the head” journalists questioned his ethics. “God will punish my detractors.”
2) Turkey captain Arda Turan claiming his vote in Fifa’s coach of the year contest was changed after he made it. “I’d like the press and the whole world to know this.”
3) David Ginola’s crowd-funded bookmaker-branded tilt at the Fifa presidency raising £5,146 towards its £2.05m target in the first 24 hours – the cash needed to pay two PR firms £160,000, and to top-up Ginola’s £250,000 fee.
Best commitment
11 Nov, Wilfried Bony drawing a line under transfer talk. “It’s all in the past and not important now. I don’t think about it. [A new Swansea contract] is something I want. It will be done.” 19 Nov: Signs until 2018. Garry Monk: “It’s fantastic: we need commitment and this shows Bony’s very committed. When we talk about the future and progressing it can’t just be talk – there has to be commitment.”
• Also drawing a line: 1 Jan, Manuel Pellegrini on why financial fair play meant a bid for Bony would make no sense. “That is just one of the 20 or 30 names I have read … But we have restrictions about money. I don’t think it will be a special window for our team.”
Best bet-hedging
Malaysia international Gary Steven Robbat, banned for three months for signing for two different clubs while under contract at a third. The FA voided all his contracts. Former Malaysia manager Ong Kim Swee: “I don’t blame Gary, he’s a nice boy. But I hope he and others will learn.”
Quote of the week
Leeds owner Massimo Cellino – four managers in nine months – on the impact the Football League had on the club’s form by announcing his disqualification in December. “I’m not saying that’s the only reason - but it started something. It gave us instability.”
Manager news
1) Spain, 7 Jan: Granada president Quique Pina: “There’s nothing going on with the coach, we’re all just working flat out. There’s no better coach than Joaquín Caparrós.” 16 Jan: There is.
2) Brazil: São Benedito coach Paulo Rossi sacked after celebrating an equaliser by aiming “a range of obscene gestures” at the VIP box containing the club’s board, regional politicians, local officials and the town’s ex-mayor. Director Aurélio Alves: “He has a lot of anger. He’s a complicated guy.”
Plus: Gennaro latest
21 Sep: OFI Crete’s Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso shouts at the Greek press in English: “No leave. Leave what? Leave what? It’s too easy for me leave. No, me stay here.” 26 Oct: Leaves. 27 Oct: Comes back. “I’m loved here. How can I leave?” 30 Dec: Leaves again. 16 Jan: Applies for the Hamilton Academical job.
Best endorsement
Romania: Ex-national player Daniel Prodan on new Steaua signing Gabriel Tamas. “He’s a real man, you could chop wood on him. If you put his head on the tram line, the tram would derail.” The move comes two years after Tamas was released by Cluj over “a series of off-field incidents, some published, some not”. President Iuliu Muresan: “He came, he drank, he left.”
Scandal of the week
Ghana’s FA asking midfielder Afriyie Acquah to “contain” wife Amanda after she released a video making a “litany of sleazy accusations against prominent men in society”. Reports say the video caused a “frenzy” in the Cup of Nations team camp; spokesman Kudjoe Fianoo told media: “It is true. This tape is not healthy at all.”
Model news
Argentina: Model Rocío Marengo says she’s “not worried” about the threat of legal action after linking herself to Lionel Messi. “His wife better not sue me. If she does, it’ll go sour.” Marengo says life has settled into a comfortable pattern. “The more you show off, the more stories you get about you, the more parties you go to, the more footballers call you. That’s just the way life is.”
