Barcelona have put the naming rights for the iconic stadium up for sale and the former heavyweight champion hopes to get his company’s brand on it.

Photo by Getty/Goal composite

Mike Tyson’s cannabis company hopes to secure the naming rights to Barcelona’s stadium, the former boxing champion’s business partner has said.

Barcelona announced this week that they will sell the naming rights to Camp Nou for the 2020-21 campaign and donate the proceeds to help in the fight against coronavirus.

Many big companies are expected to line up with a bid to have their name associated with the iconic stadium and prestigious club.

However heavyweight champion Tyson is hoping he can fight off the competition and raise the profile of his company, SwissX, which sells a range of CBD and cannabis-based products.

“It’s a great stadium,” Tyson’s business partner Alki David told  BBC Sport : “It’s something we’ve specifically been looking for to adopt in our company and it seemed like an amazing idea.

“My company is a cannabis company and Spain has a long tradition within the European Union as being a leader or a liberal in the road towards legalisation, so it’s evolved quite naturally.”

Asked if a deal with Tyson’s company could harm Barcelona’s reputation, David said: “That remains to be seen. The world is born on ideas.”

David, a billionaire who is involved with several companies, says he is already in talks with the Catalan giants and is optimistic about his chances of securing a deal.

“This is an opportunity that I am bullish about. It is an historic moment in the history of sport and it fits well with my current plans,” he said earlier this week. “Contact was opened at the start of the week and I am quietly confident the deal will be secured.”

“Manchester City got just over £18 million for their annual rights, Spurs are now seeking £25m, but Barcelona are on a different level.

“This deal with the Nou Camp is another way to help. It is full of all the energy that Barcelona stands for. My health company has been working hard with top virologists, including the UK’s Dr Dorothy Bray, to look at any way we can hit this virus.

“Swissx Nou Camp has a nice ring to it. That is my preferred choice at the moment.”

Source – Goal.com

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte has given the top flight the all-clear to resume activities under social distancing guidelines.

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Players in Italy‘s Serie A will be allowed to resume individual training regimes from May 4 onwards, the Italian government confirmed on Sunday.

The league has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, with Italy one of the nations hardest hit by the outbreak.

As of Sunday more than 197,000 cases of the disease have been reported nationwide, with more than 26,000 lives lost.

Reported infections have began to slow in recent weeks, however, due to strict quarantine measures.

Prime minister Giuseppe Conte as a result is looking to slowly relax restrictive measures, with football one of the areas that will enjoy greater freedom.

“From May 4 onwards, professional athletes and those of national interest will be able to train while following social distancing rules behind closed doors,” Conte signalled to a press conference held on Sunday.

This initial phase of individual training is expected to last two weeks, with group training sessions planned to begin from May 18.

As of yet, there is no confirmation as to when the Serie A will be able to resume competitive action, although May 31 has been mentioned as a possible return date.

Sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora warned that the easing of measures would depend on safety protocols being respected, while suggesting that there was a certain coercion from those hoping to get the ball rolling again.

“We’ll resume training for team sports from May 18, but only if the conditions of safety and security can be confirmed over the next few weeks”

“I don’t wish to penalise or slow down the resumption of football, but I have to say we’ll see because there need to be rigid and certain protocols in place on the safety of the athletes,” he said.

“The FIGC (Italian football federation) presented a protocol last night and the scientific commitee considered it insufficent, so it needs adjustments. Only from that moment, when the protocol is agreed, can we decide whether or not to restart football.

“Many leagues around Europe have terminated their seasons early, but Serie A is not inclined towards suspending the season or even training. We are receiving very strong pressure to resume.

“We realise that the world of football deserves respect and support, as it is one of the largest economic resources in the country.”

After almost two months of lockdown, Conte is keen to gradually bring Italy back to normality following the horrors of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“We are not yet in a position to restore full freedom of movement, but we are studying a relaxation of the current, strict regime,” Conte said in an interview with La Repubblica.

“We will make sure to allow greater freedom of movement while maintaining our guarantee to prevent and contain contagion.”

Juventus, who are seeking their ninth straight Scudetto title in 2019-20, led Serie A when the league came to a halt in March.

The Turin side sit one point ahead of Lazio with 26 games completed, while Inter are a further eight points back albeit with a game in hand.

Source – Goal.com

The Bundesliga is ready to return on May 9 if the German government gives it the green light, league officials have confirmed.

Germany’s Bundesliga would be the first league in Europe to resume during the coronavirus pandemic

The league has been suspended since mid-March due to the outbreak of coronavirus, which has infected more than 148,000 and killed over 5,000 people in Germany.

Its resumption, behind closed doors, remains dependent on government and all federal states’ approval, and Bundesliga chief executive Christian Seifert warned providing an exact date “would be presumptuous and is not in our hands”.

“If we should start on May 9, we are ready. If it is later we will be ready again,” Seifert said.

“We can only offer the framework conditions.”

Stadiums like the Allianz Arena will remain closed to fans

Finishing the 2019/20 season remains the priority in German football, with Seifert insisting failing to do so would mean “the Bundesliga would be a collateral damage to the coronavirus crisis”.

A maximum of 300 people can be involved at the stadium on match day, according to Sky in Germany.

“I, as a representative of the professional clubs, cannot have that as my goal,” he said.

The Bundesliga is collaborating with five different laboratories to ensure adequate testing for coronavirus.

Players will be tested at least once a week, which would require around 20,000 tests for this season.

Bundesliga players returned to training earlier this month

The 7.5 million euro solidarity fund donated by Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen will go to the third division and women’s Bundesliga.

Regional leaders in Bavaria and North-Rhine Westphalia said this week it was possible for the league to resume without spectators after May 9 and under strict health and safety conditions.

The league has warned that many clubs in the first and second divisions faced an uncertain financial future and several would be in an “existence-threatening” situation if play did not resume by June.

Some German shops opened for business again this week, after a month of lockdown, in an agreement with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states.

The state of play in England

June 8 has emerged as the best-case scenario for when the Premier League season could restart.

Premier League clubs remain keen to finish the season, but the proposal of completing the campaign by June 30 was not raised in their latest meeting on Friday, April 17.

All top-flight clubs were represented on the video call, with the focus on different models for completing the season.

Clubs were shown different models for games restarting and being played in June, July and August, but the Premier League reiterated that the season will not resume until the government declares it is safe to do so.

The EFL remains determined to finish this season on the pitch for as long as they “humanly can”, according to Rick Parry.

Source – Sky Sports

European football’s governing body met on Thursday to discuss 2020-21 continental club competitions, and says teams will be chosen on league form.

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UEFA has stated that qualification for its club competitions next season must be done on “sporting merit”, while reaffirming its belief that the 2019-20 season should be played to a complete finish where possible.

The football season has been postponed across the majority of Europe due to the coronavirus outbreak, with the Champions League and Europa League on hold and all major domestic leagues being suspended, or in some cases, abandoned.

The Belgian Pro League was the first to be called off early, while Scottish lower league clubs recently voted to end their seasons and the Dutch Eredivisie is set to be abandoned after all football in the country was banned until September 1.

The UEFA executive committee met in a video conference on Thursday to discuss how the league seasons could be ended, and also how qualification for the 2020-21 Champions League and Europa League could be decided.

A UEFA statement read: “As a result of representations made by the football authorities in Belgium and Scotland, the committee recognises the issues raised and approved the guidelines on eligibility principles for 2020-21 UEFA club competitions. The guidelines reflect the principle that admission to UEFA club competitions is always based on sporting merit.

“Therefore, UEFA urges national associations and leagues to explore all possible options to play all top domestic competitions giving access to UEFA club competitions to their natural conclusion. However, UEFA stresses that the health of players, spectators and all those involved in football as well as the public at large must remain the primary concern at this time.

“The ideal scenario, should the pandemic situation permit it, is to have the currently suspended domestic competitions completed enabling football clubs to qualify for UEFA club competitions on sporting merit in their original format.

“Should this outcome not be possible, in particular due to calendar issues, it would be preferable that suspended domestic competitions would restart with a different format in a manner which would still facilitate clubs to qualify on sporting merit.”

This increases the possibility of leagues resuming behind closed doors, with the German Bundesliga announcing on Thursday that it is ready to resume play on May 9, pending government approval.

However other European nations, including England, Italy and Spain, have been harder hit by coronavirus, meaning even playing to empty stadia may be impossible – in which case UEFA has said participants in next season’s continental competitions should be chosen based on their form this season, rather than reputation or riches.

Its statement continued: “If a domestic competition is prematurely terminated, UEFA would require the national association concerned to select clubs for the UEFA club competitions 2020-21 based on sporting merit in the 2019-20 domestic competitions.

“The procedure for selecting clubs should be based on objective, transparent and non-discriminatory principles. National associations and leagues should otherwise have the ability to decide the final positions in their domestic competitions, having regard to the specific circumstances of each competition.”

UEFA also said it reserves the right to refuse admission to any club for next year’s continental competition if it feels they have been chosen unfairly, including if “there is a public perception of unfairness in the qualification of the club.”

Among the other discussions at Thursday’s meeting, UEFA said it is still discussing how to complete this year’s Champions League and Europa League, which were both halted part way through their round-of-16 stages.

It said it is considering whether to run the cups alongside leagues as it usually does, or wait until domestic competitions are done and play out the continental matches in August.

Source – Goal.com

Gareth Bale and his wife Emma have donated £500,000 to the charitable arm of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

Gareth Bale was born at the NHS’ University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff

The Cardiff & Vale Health Charity said it was the couple’s wish that the money is used on “the response to Covid-19”.

The charity said the money will provide “those extras for staff and patients that normal NHS funding doesn’t provide”, during the pandemic.

CVUHB chief executive Len Richards said the donation was “fantastic”.

The charity added in a statement: “They wanted to give something back to their local NHS as Gareth himself was born in the UHW (University Hospital of Wales) maternity unit, and they say UHW have provided many services to themselves and their family and friends.

“Thank you Gareth, you really are our star!”

Richards added: “I’d like to say a big thank you to Gareth, Emma and their family for this fantastic donation.

“It’s so heartening to hear they have chosen to give something back to their local hospital to say thank you for the services both them, and their family and friends have received, and to recognise all the hard work the staff and all at our hospitals are doing at this very difficult time.

“I would also like to say that gestures like this are testament to the fantastic work that our clinical and support colleagues carry out every day. Thank you so much.”

Bale’s fellow Wales international Aaron Ramsey, of Juventus, has made two £10,000 donations to the NHS in Wales.

One of the sums went to the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which serves an area including Caerphilly, where Ramsey was born.

The former Cardiff City player previously gave the same sum to the same charity as Bale – Cardiff and Vale Health charity.

Other donations from football figures include Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola each giving a million euros to medical causes.

Source – BBC News

FIFA has confirmed they are investigating a complaint filed by Loris Karius against Besiktas.

Loris Karius has made 32 appearances for Besiktas this season

Liverpool goalkeeper Karius is coming towards the end of a two-year loan spell at the Turkish club and was expected to join them on a permanent basis at the conclusion of the deal

Last month, there were reports the 26-year-old had filed a complaint against the Istanbul club relating to alleged unpaid wages.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have received a claim from the player Loris Karius against the club Besiktas.

“The matter is currently being investigated and consequently we cannot provide any further comment.”

Sky Sports News has contacted Besiktas for a response.

Source – Sky Sports

It is understood that the hierarchy at the Santiago Bernabeu is open to selling the player this summer rather than losing him on a free next year.

Photo by Getty/Goal

Inter Miami owner David Beckham has been in contact with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to explore the possibility of signing James Rodriguez for his new Major League Soccer franchise, Goal has learned .

Beckham shares a strong relationship with Perez, with the Blancos supremo having brought the former England captain to the Santiago Bernabeu as one of his ‘Galactico’ signings when securing his signature from Manchester United in 2003.

Indeed, it is understood that Perez is willing to negotiate for Colombia international James, keeping the door open for the sale of a player who has barely featured under the stewardship of Zinedine Zidane.

Sources close to the club have told Goal that Beckham considers the 28-year-old to be a great footballer despite his struggles at Madrid and sees him as the big-ticket signing required to take his fledgling MLS side to the next level in terms of commercialisation.

Signing a player of James’ calibre while still in the peak years of his career would also be seen as a big coup for the US top flight as a whole, with questions still being asked as to whether MLS will ever reach its goal of competing with top European leagues in terms of popularity .

Beckham’s entourage have begun informal talks with James’ people and, while there is still no firm offer on the table, it must be stressed that the Colombian will enter the final year of his contract in the summer and Perez will be reluctant to let him leave for free.

Former United star Beckham has been no slouch in setting up his new club so far, utilising the many friendships, alliances and knowledge of sporting models gained through spells at Real Madrid, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and the LA Galaxy.

In fact, the ex-Madrid midfielder recently secured a friendly match with Real Valladolid after chatting with former team-mate Ronaldo ‘Il Fenomeno’ Nazario, who is the majority shareholder of the Liga club.

For James, meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the attacking midfielder, who shot to fame for his performances at the 2014 World Cup, would be keen to give up on Europe during his peak years, with transfer links to Arsenal, United, Everton and Wolves all having sprung up in recent months.

Source – Goal.com

The leader of the Netherlands extended a moratorium on events subject to licensing, which was previously in place through June 1.

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The Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) has said it intends to end the 2019-20 Eredivisie season after Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday that all professional football is banned until September 1 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dutch top flight has been suspended since early March, with nine games remaining and Ajax ahead of AZ at the top of the table on goal difference.

Though many leagues across Europe are considering a return in the summer with games behind closed doors, Rutte said at a press conference that even matches with no fans will not happen until autumn at the earliest.

A ban on events subject to licensing was previously in place until June 1, and Rutte has now confirmed the extension of that ban through September. That meant that in addition to professional football, a pair of popular festivals in the Netherlands were also cancelled.

“We will certainly not be able to handle the risks in the coming months, and we want to provide organizers with clarity. That means no Pinkpop, Zwarte Cross and no paid professional football either. That is irritating, but we will have to make that sacrifice,” Rutte said.

In response to Rutte’s announcement, the KNVB released a statement saying it intends to end the Eredivisie season and will consult with UEFA to determine how to resolve the competition.

“That the events requiring a permit remain prohibited until September 1 creates clarity,” the statement read. “Until then, no professional football can be played, even without an audience.

“As a result, the board of professional football intends not to continue playing the 19/20 league. Based on the government’s decision today, the KNVB will consult with UEFA, after which a decision will be made. On Friday, the clubs and other parties involved will meet to discuss the consequences.”

Several Eredivisie clubs have recently expressed their support for ending the season, including AZ, Ajax and PSV among others. Should the season end it would be up to the KNVB to determine how the competition is resolved.

The entire season could potentially be voided, or the KNVB could decide to award Ajax the title based on their current position atop the Eredivisie table. In addition, European places and promotion and relegation will have to be sorted out.

Former Netherlands national team manager Louis van Gaal recently hit out at Ajax, saying the club was looking to take advantage of the coronavirus uncertainty to secure the title.

Source – Goal.com

Uefa will provide an update on plans to finish the 2019-20 season to all its 55 national associations at a video conference on Tuesday.

Leicester’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa on 9 March was the last game played in the Premier League before the suspension

European football’s governing body hopes to end the campaign in August, although with every league bar Belarus still suspended there are doubts over whether that deadline can be met.

Uefa has launched two working groups, one specifically assessing the fixture calendar. It is hoped specific proposals will be presented by mid-May at the latest.

However, the continuing uncertainty over the spread of coronavirus is creating major issues, with some leagues – including Germany and Denmark – talking optimistically about a resumption next month, while others – England among them – believe it will be June at the earliest before they can play games, and some Premier League clubs feel it will be longer than that.

Uefa is still hoping to complete its own tournaments in the normal two-legged format. However, there is an understanding that it may not be possible, so one-off games, and a week-long mini-tournament from the quarter-finals onwards for both the Champions League and Europa League, have also been discussed.

Tuesday’s meeting will be followed on Thursday by a meeting of the Uefa executive committee.

That is expected to provide an update on the Womens’ European Championship and the Nations League, both of which have been moved to allow Euro 2020 to take place a year later than scheduled, plus plans to relax financial regulations this season.

In addition, it is anticipated, Uefa will confirm that it will listen to requests to end domestic leagues early.

It has previously warned against this, saying countries risk their places in next season’s European competitions.

Source – BBC News