Digest: Chelsea have announced a long-term partnership with the owner of four Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs which will involve the English champions playing in a biennial tournament in the United States.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon said in New York yesterday that Chelsea would enter into a strategic alliance with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). AEG owns the Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo, DC United and MLS champions the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Chelsea said the relationship would begin in the summer of 2007 with the staging of a tournament every two years involving the London club and a host MLS team.
Timothy Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG, said: "This alliance will clearly help to continue soccer's tremendous growth in North America through our joint promotional efforts as well as the staging of meaningful competitions between Chelsea and the best of the MLS."
Quinn in Sunderland bid
Former Sunderland striker Niall Quinn is interested in putting together a bid to buy the struggling Premiership outfit, according to the BBC. Current chairman Bob Murray has said he will sell his 56.8 per cent stake in the club if the right offer comes along.
Quinn, who played for Sunderland between 1996 and 2002, is understood to have spent several weeks looking at the viability of making a bid. But it is not thought the 39-year-old has yet opened talks with Murray.
Sunderland have had a disastrous season, picking up only 10 points and winning just two of their 31 games so far. They could be relegated as early as this Saturday, should they drop points at Everton and West Brom beat Liverpool.
The Sportsman newspaper has said that speculation Quinn was keen on joining forces with horse racing magnate JP McManus was wide of the mark. Sunderland are yet to comment on the rumours.
Apology over flag
The organising committee for the World Cup in Germany apologised yesterday after it accidentally printed a handbook for tournament volunteers showing Croatia's communist-era flag.
Instead of the flag the Balkan nation adopted after the break-up of Yugoslavia, which is made up of three horizontal red, white and blue stripes and a shield of red and blue checks, the guide had the old flag with a red communist star in the centre, committee spokesman Jens Grittner said.
Figo criticises Real
Inter Milan midfielder Luis Figo has described his former club Real Madrid as like a circus, and criticised the way it was run under former president Florentino Perez. The former world and European footballer of the year moved to Italy last August, six months before Perez resigned with Real heading towards their third consecutive season without a major trophy.
"If the most important thing for your project is to put on a circus, then you have less chance of winning things," Figo said in an interview with sports daily Marca yesterday.
Figo joined Real in 2000 and helped them to the league title in his first season at the club and played an important part in their victories at the 2002 European Cup and the 2003 Spanish championship.
"Everything started to go wrong at Real after those first three years when commercial decisions took precedence over sporting ones," Figo said. "After the third year they signed players for the sake of signing them. They didn't sign them for sporting reasons, they had other priorities. When things are like this sooner or later you pay for it."
In brief . . .
Barcelona midfielder Xavi says he is on the verge of returning to full training after almost four months out with a serious knee injury . . . Italian World Cup winner Marco Tardelli has been linked with the Hearts manager's job . . . Tottenham are losing the race to sign striker Mido permanently his agent has claimed . . . David Beckham aims to be fit for Real Madrid's trip to Barcelona on Saturday despite missing training yesterday with an ankle injury . . . Celtic have confirmed that first-team coach Tommy Burns is undergoing treatment for skin cancer.
