Day -869. WorldCup2018.
Corruption, bribery, corruption, fraud, corruption. These days it's almost no surprise when we hear another story about the dark side of sport. Or, as the U.S. Treasury maintain, a story about how the C word pertains to Vladimir Putin.
So Putin is accused of receiving gifts from people like Roman Abramovich and having a personal wealth of $40bn on an annual salary of $110,000 and with corrupt Fifa allegedly having come under the Putin spell in aw...arding Russia the World Cup there is a story there that could go on for a long time.
But away from the billions of Russian and Fifa dollars came another story today, a story about Chinese billions. And if ever more proof was needed of either how simply ridiculous world football has become, or how money and politics rule football here it was.
The gist of the story is that Chinese company Lerman are going to sponsor the Portuguese second division. The catch is that the proposal included the small detail that all the teams would have to include Chinese players and coaches as a way to train young Chinese players. The Portuguese players union protested and the proposal was withdrawn. Deal off? No. Instead the league board will decide on the number of Chinese players and who they play for.
One company sponsoring a whole league and deciding who plays in the league. Oh football, the football of Herbert Chapman, Billy Wright, Di Stefano, Jimmy Greaves, Zico, Maradona (at least we knew where we stood with him) I despair!
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/35415217
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