JOSE’S GURU ZOOMS TO RESCUE

Jose Mourinho’s Pr adviser stefano Marchesi has been an unexpected presence on the tottenham manager’s Zoom press conferences in the last week despite the club boasting a more than capable communications department. the former Verona and Udinese communications director, who has worked with Mourinho for the past year, is understood to have provided the manager with the goal stats of the strikers he has worked with throughout his career which underpinned his strong defence of harry Kane before tottenham’s win over West ham this week. Journalists on the call were nonplussed by Mourinho’s statistical tirade, as no one had asked him about Paul Merson’s suggestion that the england captain should leave tottenham, and no one was planning to.

BeIN SPORT are seeking to extend their contract to broadcast Serie A despite coming off air last weekend in protest against the Italian top flight’s links to Saudi Arabia. The Italian Super Cup final has been staged in Saudi Arabia for the last three years in a deal worth £6.5million, despite the country’s links to pirate broadcaster BeoutQ, which were confirmed by a report published by the World Trade Organisation last week. BeIN took the surprise decision not to broadcast last weekend’s match between Torino and Parma despite holding rights in 35 countries, but their main motivation appears to be a breakdown in negotiating a contract with Serie A beyond next season rather than piracy. BeIN have complained about the piracy of their Premier League rights in the Middle East and Africa region by BeoutQ, but have no plans to take English games off air as they are a major driver of subscriptions.