Chelsea has "apologized to a former player who was sexually abused while a member of the club's youth team," and said Saturday it was "inappropriate" to pay him £50,000 ($63,600) to keep the matter out of the public domain. The club said in a statement that Gary Johnson "suffered unacceptably while in our employment in the 1970s, for which the club apologizes profusely." Johnson, who is now 57, told a British newspaper that he was "sexually assaulted repeatedly every week by youth-team coach Eddie Heath from the age of 13 until he was 16 or 17." Heath is now dead (AP, 12/3).
Paris Saint-Germain "has teamed up with Bali United to launch a football academy in Bali," with the local club operating the institution and tire maker Multistrada Arah Sarana as main sponsor. The academy is "open to players 6 to 19-years-old and offers training in line with the PSG curriculum." Bali United and Multistrada are owned by Pieter Tanuri, who "has secured a sponsorship deal with PSG and Achilles-Corsa" -- an Indonesian tire brand officially partnered with the French club -- until '19 (JAKARTA GLOBE, 12/4).
Barcelona "could be in trouble after supporters sang 'Cristiano come out of the closet'" to Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo during Saturday's El Clasico. The chants "from supporters behind the goal" were drowned out by whistles from the remainder of the 98,000 supporters inside Camp Nou but La Liga President Javier Tebas "could still take action." La Liga is "keen to clamp down on anything that could be interpreted as homophobic" behavior at stadiums and this is not the first time Ronaldo has been targeted (London DAILY MAIL, 12/3).