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International Football

Football Notes: Chinese Exec Admits He Has Not Seen A Potential Lionel Messi

Chinese property tycoon Xu Jiayin, the chair of Evergrande Group who also heads China’s largest football academy, said, "So far, I haven't seen a new [Lionel] Messi. Nor have I seen any Cristiano Ronaldos, for that matter." Xu is "investing heavily" in a football academy and club. He "set up" the world’s largest football school with about 2,800 pupils. Xu: "While we haven’t found a potential Messi at our school, China has more than 1 billion people, so there’s still plenty of hope here" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 3/9).

Barcelona could "reportedly become the next club to become involved in esports." A Barcelona source said that the organization "is considering multiple options in the esports world and the potential opportunities that this could represent" (AS, 3/8).

Former Wales int'l Craig Bellamy’s charitable foundation "is being examined by the Charity Commission after the sudden closure of its football academy in Sierra Leone amid claims that teenage boys have been left living in pitiful conditions." Two former staff members have alleged that four of the boys from the academy are "now sharing a single room without furniture or sanitary facilities." A statement from Bellamy’s solicitor said that he "appointed a legal team to investigate possible irregularities in the management of his financial affairs" (LONDON TIMES, 3/9).

Qatar is "looking to Pakistan for military support" at the 2022 World Cup, hoping to "tap the ally’s experience in fighting terrorism." The Gulf country’s PM met Pakistan’s army chief in Qatar Tuesday and expressed interest in "securing assistance for the 32-team competition, Pakistan’s army said in a statement" (BLOOMBERG, 3/8).

A coalition of Palestinian and int'l organizations on Thursday denounced FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s "failure to compel Israel’s national football league to exclude six football teams based in illegal Israeli settlements." The organizations said in a statement, "FIFA’s failure to act against the Israeli settlement clubs renders it complicit in Israel’s violations of international law, and violates its own rules, which forbid member associations from playing in the territory of another member association without the latter’s permission" (WAFA, 3/9).

A top FIFA official believes hosting the U17 World Cup "has the potential to spark a football revolution in India -- and lead to lasting change in the global game." The run-up to October’s tournament will see a program called Mission XI Million "aim to involve millions of children across the world’s second-most populous nation" in trying out the sport (AFP, 3/9).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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