Jose’s £1.7m for four days at World Cup

JOSE MOURINHO is already guaranteed to be one of the big winners at the World Cup — earning £1.71million for spending just four days in Russia during the tournament.

Mourinho, who was being chased by the BBC and ITV, has signed up for Russia’s international news channel RT, who have no live rights.

Their agreement with the Manchester United manager requires him to be in Moscow at the start of the World Cup for those lucrative four days doing a variety of punditry.

Then he will work for RT on World Cup final day, but that will be done via a satellite link-up with Manchester. He is also advertising RT’s World Cup service through a video launched yesterday, which mainly promotes himself.

The World Cup has proved a great earner for Mourinho, who was paid more than £1m when he provided his views for Yahoo in 2014.

Mourinho’s commercial agents Creative Artists wanted to negotiate a deal that earned their client the biggest fee for the smallest amount of his time, and they have certainly succeeded.

The Portuguese intends to take a family holiday between his RT commitments at the start and end of the World Cup. He said: ‘I am looking forward to attending the World Cup in Russia and sharing my insights.’

ENGLAND rugby union head coach Eddie Jones can’t win with the Scots. Not only was he physically and verbally harassed by drunken Scotland fans, but there were rumblings of disapproval at the official dinner after the Murrayfield game about Jones (right) wearing an openneck shirt and jumper rather than a jacket and tie. AN RFU spokeswoman said she was surprised at such an opinion being expressed because ‘Eddie wore smart clothing from the official Eden Park range, as he always does’. Also, the Scottish Rugby Union statement apologising for the abuse dished out to Jones in Manchester made reference to the dignity he and his team had shown at the dinner.

BATTLE lines have been drawn between past and present England cricketers over the way their union is being run. The current squad have clear misgivings that Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive David leatherdale, currently on sick leave, is leading their Twenty20 pay talks when he is so close to the ECB management.

But ex-England stars and PCA ambassadors Mark Butcher, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Marcus Trescothick have taken to social media to express how well they feel the union is working. A PCA spokesman denied it was an orchestrated campaign and said the tweets had just snowballed.

OLIVIER GERS, who resigned yesterday as IAAF chief executive after only 17 months in the role, citing commercial strategy differences, cut a lonely figure during the World Indoor Championships at Birmingham. The Frenchman jumped before he was pushed after failing to bring in the revenues he was expected to attract. He is blaming the commercial hold of the IAAF’s Japanese agency partners Dentsu, who have a contract until 2029, for the lack of new business.