UNITED DILEMMA ON DAN’S SIDE GIG
IT WILL be interesting to see if Manchester United give Dan Ashworth the same leeway he has at Newcastle should he, as expected, arrive at Old Trafford from St James’ Park. The former FA director of elite development is set to join the Ineos revolution as sporting director in the coming days, although there will be a period of gardening leave. While in the North East, Ashworth was permitted to keep his position on Warwickshire’s cricket audit committee. The role is honorary and the club said the aim was to allow both organisations to share insight across coaching, recruitment and development.
WHILE football clubs cannot pick and choose who supports them, the X account of the disgraced Labour candidate for the Rochdale by-election may have caused a headache at Turf Moor. The Mail on Sunday revealed that Azhar Ali had claimed Israel allowed the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists as a pretext to invade Gaza. Ali has since been suspended and seen the support of his party withdrawn ahead of next Thursday’s vote. Burnley’s badge is the background and picture of the politician’s X account, so every time Ali tweets, the club crest is shown.
MANCHESTER CITY have extended their global reach after signing a ‘football collaboration agreement’ with İstanbul Basaksehir. The club say City Football Group are to provide advice focused on recruitment, academy development and data use while gaining ‘knowledge and building relationships in Turkey, an ambitious football nation and developer of talent’.
MEDIA-FRIENDLY Gareth Southgate will again host a Super Bowl-style get together with the press before England depart for the European Championship. The relationship between the Three Lions and the media has improved dramatically on Southgate’s watch and reporters will be invited to St George’s Park in June where a series of interviews will take place. England will then fly to Germany from nearby Birmingham Airport.
EYEBROWS have been raised in the world of football after CONCACAF, the governing body for North America, announced a multiyear — and no doubt lucrative — partnership with Aramco. The Saudi state-owned oil giant will become the official energy partner for all of CONCACAF’s national teams and club competitions. Aramco vice-president of public affairs Khalid Al Zamil stated the deal would give Aramco ‘significant visibility’. One thing that was not visible in the statement to announce the partnership was a reference to Aramco’s native Saudi Arabia. CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani approved the 2030 and 2034 World Cup bidding process – with Saudi now the sole bidder for the latter.
WITH the redistribution row between the Premier League and EFL rumbling on, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer warned execs from both competitions to make an agreement before the arrival of the new independent regulator. Frazer’s input, according to sources, was not entirely well-received, with clubs at various levels left ‘thoroughly unimpressed’ and wondering whether the matter has now become politicised ahead of the General Election.
THE chief financial officer of 777 Partners, whose takeover of Everton is still to be approved by the Premier League, has resigned. Damien Alfalla has been with the US investment group, which is expecting to learn if they can buy Everton by the end of the month, since 2017. 777 agreed to take Farhad Moshiri’s stake in September and have so far loaned the club around £180million. Insiders say the departure was amicable and insist that it has no impact on 777 Football Group — the entity that runs the consortium’s stable of clubs.
FORMER Premier League winner Danny Drinkwater has kicked off a row with neighbours over plans to extend a Cheshire pad. The ex-Leicester City and Chelsea midfielder retired last year and bought a 1930s, four-bed residence. He wants to turn it into a multiple-storey, five-bedroom property but angry residents in Wilmslow say the plans are out of keeping with the area. One claimed the extension would result in an ‘overbearing’ development which would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ and ‘like a block of flats’. Another said it was ‘oppressive’. Wilmslow Town Council also objected.
AFTER winning only a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year — ahead of their home Olympics in Paris — Agenda understands that the French athletics team have made a name-your-price approach to Stephen Maguire. He is the hugely respected Team GB coach who was fired from British Athletics following a record-equalling 10 medals in Budapest — including golds for Josh Kerr and Katarina Johnson-Thompson — in a row over budgets.
IT IS not even March and the great Wimbledon ticket rip-off appears to be underway. Last week, a ballot opened for members and several issues arose. When tickets went on sale, the queue was reportedly about 17 minutes, while one punter spent £470 on two ‘best available’ tickets (buying one is not an option) — and found them to be in row Y.