Barcelona and U.S. residential academy Grande Sports World signed an agreement to join forces and create a Barça Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona. The facilities will house an academic and football training center for children between the ages of 12 and 19. The players that form part of this project will also compete in the highest division of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy's youth football categories (Barcelona).
Relegated Spanish second division side Mallorca CEO Maheta Molango "announced that there will be no changes among the club's executive or sporting leadership" (EL PAÍS, 6/6).
Russian Premier League club Terek Grozny, in "formerly war-torn Chechnya," is to be renamed after the regional leader's dead father. Terek Grozny CEO Akhmed Aidamirov said on Tuesday that the club will be renamed Akhmat Grozny after Akhmat Kadyrov, the father of current regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Aidamirov: "There was a multitude of requests from fans" (AP, 6/6).
A senior official at South China hit out at the Hong Kong Premier League on Wednesday "as more details of the club's withdrawal from next season's competition were disclosed." Lam Tai-fai, who sponsors the youth development program at South China, "questioned the professionalism of the competition this season" after organizers allowed amateur outfit Hong Kong Football Club to participate as well as a Guangzhou R&F youth development side. He said that there were "many reasons for South China’s decision to quit the Premier League," which he suggested is "no longer popular among supporters" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 6/7).
