AINSLIE TO SELL HIS £1m BOAT
IT SEEMS extraordinary at a time when the FA are ditching more than 100 staff to save £30million a year that the England party continue to stay at different hotels on the eve of an away match.
This meant yesterday that all England personnel apart from Roy Hodgson’s backroom staff and squad had to quit the Asia Gardens Hotel outside Benidorm, where they had been staying for two nights, and move to another hotel in Alicante half an hour away.
The 311-room Asia Gardens and Thai Spa has more than enough space and facilities for the England squad not to have to set eyes on the rest of the FA travelling party before tonight’s game against Spain.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn said earlier this season he would be looking into the two-hotel extravagance, which is the idea of Dave Reddin, the FA’s head of performance services.
England assistant coach Gary Neville is understood to have been one of those displeased by the number of FA and sponsor personnel in the England hotel at the World Cup in Rio, especially around meal times — and he complained about it again in Benidorm.
CHAMPION sailor Sir Ben Ainslie is selling the boat from which he and his wife Georgie Thompson had to be rescued last January by Sir Richard Branson’s staff while on honeymoon in the Caribbean. Sailing cruiser Rita, which is the name Ainslie (right) gives all his boats, is moored at the Lymington Yacht Haven, where the three-cabin Hoek Truly Classic 65 boat is for sale at £950,000. The yacht broker, Ancasta, says: ‘Rita is a timeless classic, which has the benefit of being professionally maintained and updated over the last couple of years.’ But no mention in the sales blurb is made of the owner’s sailing expertise, which has brought him four Olympic gold medals and an America’s Cup victory with Oracle Team USA. That ability wasn’t so apparent when Ben and former Sky Sports presenter Georgie had to radio Branson’s watersports staff for help while sailing off the Virgin tycoon’s Necker Island. ENGLAND manager Roy Hodgson acknowledged yesterday he had been fortunate the FA kept faith with him after a woeful World Cup, while the RFU ditched Stuart Lancaster following his similar debacle.
Hodgson wouldn’t comment on the RFU’s decision, only his sadness for Lancaster with whom he built up a friendship since being greatly impressed during a three-hour chat in 2013 when Lancaster explained his coaching philosophy. Hodgson has since sat in on an England rugby debrief at Pennyhill Park as well as being a Twickenham Royal Box guest for the Rugby World Cup defeat by Australia.
The pair’s shared World Cup experience is exiting at the group stage.
ONE of the best features of the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham was how the concourse was opened up for all fans to enjoy the big screen plus eating and drinking facilities. But for the Six Nations, the West car park will revert to being an exclusive domain of the blazers.