F1 CEO BERNIE ECCLESTONE has revealed that he once "plotted an audacious" £600M bid with BORIS BECKER's former Manager ION TIRIAC to buy Wimbledon. Ecclestone and Tiriac, who managed Becker for nine years, had "visions of taking over the Association of Tennis Professionals and they wanted to run the sport" (London DAILY MAIL, 7/10). ... Former Liverpool midfielder GARY MCALLISTER has been appointed the club's first team coach as part of Manager BRENDAN RODGERS' new coaching staff. The 50-year-old won the FA Cup, UEFA Cup and the League Cup in '01 during two seasons as a player at Anfield and has since managed Leeds United and Coventry City (REUTERS, 7/11). ... RAHEEM STERLING will not travel to Bangkok for the start of Liverpool's preseason tour of Australia and the Far East after Man City "entered into formal negotiations to sign the winger." Having received a third offer from Man City, worth an initial £49M ($76M) up front with an additional £4M ($6.2M) in performance-related incentives, Liverpool now regards its interest as "serious enough to open a dialogue" with its rivals and allow Sterling to remain on Merseyside while his teammates travel to Thailand (SUNDAY TIMES, 7/12).
TAILOR-MADE: Former ManU Manager ALEX FERGUSON is to be "approached over taking on a specially-created role" within the Scottish FA. Ferguson is a close, long-term friend of new SFA President ALAN MCRAE, who is "effusive" about the contribution Ferguson could make to "promoting the game in Scotland and improving the sport from the ground up." McRae said, "We would like to get him involved with the SFA in some shape or form to help Scottish football. Being an administrator is a different thing to what Alex has done in his past as a manager and a coach. He might do ambassadorial stuff, but I would like to think we could maybe get him involved a bit more than that. I don't know" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 7/12).
