Pro Eleven Headline News
Losing their shirts: AIG pulls out of United sponsorship
One of football's most prestigious sponsorship deals is up for grabs following a decision by the cash-strapped insurance firm AIG to end its four-year, £56.5m deal with Manchester United.
The club has approached the Indian conglomerate Sahara, which already sponsors India's national cricket team, about replacing AIG when the insurer's sponsorship expires in May next year. Other possible contenders are thought to include Saudi Telecom, reflecting the club's immense popularity in Asia and the Middle East.
AIG's withdrawal is hardly surprising given the deep financial crisis afflicting the company. Since September, the US treasury and the Federal Reserve have provided lifelines of more than $150bn to save it from bankruptcy.
As a price for the rescue, the US government has taken a 78% stake in AIG - which means that Manchester United is in effect being sponsored by American taxpayers.
An AIG spokesman said that the firm would honour the remaining months of the contract but had informed the club in October that it would not be renewed: "It's been a wonderful relationship but we have other issues to deal with right now," he said.
AIG's management was replaced by the US government last year and the new executive team is facing intense political pressure to eliminate any unnecessary spending.
New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, threatened litigation to halt "unwarranted and outrageous expenditure" by AIG when it emerged that the company had spent more than $400,000 on a weekend retreat for insurance agents at an exclusive resort in autumn.
The insurer is not renewing a host of other relationships with sports clubs - including stadium advertising deals with baseball teams such as New York's Yankees and Mets, the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies. AIG is also ending 10 years of sponsorship of the US Davis Cup tennis team. Guardian
Inter Refute Materazzi To Tottenham Hotspur Reports
Despite comments from his agent implying that Inter Milan's veteran defender Marco Materazzii would be leaving San Siro, most probably for Tottenham Hotspur, the Italian club have moved to quell speculation about the player.
Materazzi's agent, Claudio Vigorelli, was reported in the Italian press as saying that Spurs had been in contact with his 35-year-old client concerning a move, and that other English clubs, rumoured to be Manchester City and Portsmouth, were also hovering to try and claim the defender's signature.
However, Inter's sporting director, Marco Branca, refuted the rumours out of hand, saying: "We have not received any offers from any English teams for Marco Materazzi.
"Marco is under contract with Inter until June 2010. Usually the club's position regarding players like Marco is to keep them."
Materazzi has struggled for first-team opportunities at the San Siro this season, appearing just five times for Inter. He has also been battling injury recently.
With one key centre-back in Ledley King almost constantly sidelined with injury, it is doubtful that Materazzi could actually bring much to Tottenham's squad beyond some additional experience, and this may well be yet another case of an agent stirring things up to engineer a profitable move.
The player does have some previous experience of English football, having made 25 appearances for Eveton in the 1998/99 campaign, before he returned to Italian football with former club, Perugia. Goal
Bayern says Ribery not for sale
Bayern Munich asserted again that star midfielder Franck Ribery is not for sale, no matter what the price might be.
The German tabloids have been speculating that AC Milan was interested in Ribery as a potential replacement for Kaka, who had been the target of Manchester City. Kaka turned down City's 100 million pound (C$175.7 million).
"Then we would ask 150 million euros (C$245.6 million) for Franck Ribery," Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness said when asked about the offer to Kaka.
Hoeness may have been less than serious, but other Bayern officials dismissed any suggestions of Ribery leaving.
"Ribery has a contract with us until 2011 and he will not get out of it earlier," Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann said.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummennige said the club "still stood by what it has said."
"We are not ready to discuss Ribery. No matter how high the offer is," Rummennige told Bild newspaper.
On Monday, Bayern agreed to release striker Lukas Podolski at the end of the season. Podolski will return to his former club FC Cologne.
The Bundesliga champions are also ready to send Argentine midfielder Jose Ernesto Sosa on loan to another club. Espanyol and Palermo have been mentioned as possible destinations. Canadian Press
Kaka 'wants to play at Real, says Beckham'
Brazilian midfielder Kaka, who rejected a record-breaking transfer from Manchester City, wants to play at Real Madrid next season, his AC Milan teammate David Beckham was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"Kaka wants to go to Real Madrid and not to City. I think he will become a Real player in June. I think someone has called him and that Kaka has made his decision," the former England captain told a friend recently, according to Spanish sports daily AS.
The paper said last week Kaka asked Beckham, who played for Real between 2003 and 2007, for information about the defending Spanish giants, the paper added.
Former Real president Ramon Calderon, who stepped down on Friday over allegations that he rigged voting at the club's last annual general assembly, promised to sign Kaka during his successful campaign to lead the club.
Real remains interested in signing the 26-year-old, according to AS.
"This is the best moment to recruit Kaka, he is the player who would benefit the team the most," an unnamed Real source told the newspaper.
Italian prime minister and AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi said late Monday that Kaka had decided to stay with the Italian side, having rejected a bid from City that was said to be of 100 million pounds (111 million euros/147 million US dollars).
Kaka is under contract with Milan through 2013. AFP
