While "final figures have not yet been officially confirmed," the number of people who visited Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu stadium in '14 is "thought to be in the region of a million." The club is "hoping to set a new record for visitors, partly thanks to the refurbishment of the museum last May, which coincided with the club finally achieving the 'Décima,' and has seen a 35% increase in visits" over the end of '14 in comparison to the previous year. For '14, the Bernabéu Tour "could climb a notch in this particular ranking within Madrid" (MARCA, 1/3). ... Lebanon coach Giuseppe Giannini "is among 104 people charged with sporting fraud" around Gallipoli’s '08-09 Lega Pro campaign.
The Naples investigation, code name Aracne, "claims figures within the club were linked with the Contini clan." Giannini, director of sport Luigi Dmitri and Salvatore Righi are all accused of giving €50,000 ($60,000) to several Real Marcianise players "to throw the last game of the season" (FOOTBALL ITALIA, 1/3). ... The Ghana FA has repeated that it will be able to pay the $3.1M "borrowed from the government once an official request for the funds is made."
At the World Cup last summer Ghanaian players "refused to play" unless they were paid their appearance fees in advance. The situation "was resolved when Ghana's government loaned the FA the money" and flew about £3M in cash to Brazil to prevent the player mutiny (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 1/2).
... Accrington Stanley, which would have faced ManU in the FA Cup third round had it beaten Yeovil in the previous round, is "selling commemorative tickets for the game that will never happen" for £20 ($31) (London GUARDIAN, 1/4).
