Off Topic When all is Said and Done

Again with credit and thanks to the Gruaniad.

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.”

•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.

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.”

•Clause of the week:

Mario Balotelli, on course for a six-figure loyalty bonusif 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.”)

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 ****ing Stop Swearing T-shirt I asked for? You’re going ****ing slowly.”

 

Give it to mike ashley he will destroy the entire world of football and people on the outside will get a taste of the nectar.