Referees have been reminded by UEFA to "protect players by punishing serious fouls in European club competitions." It comes after Man City Manager Pep Guardiola urged English officials to take care of the game's "artists" when Leroy Sané was injured in the FA Cup win at Cardiff City in January. UEFA told referees they have a duty to "protect football's image" (BBC, 2/13).
League of Ireland Dir Fran Gavin announced a "new youth development fund" to help the league's clubs with the cost of running their youth teams." Gavin revealed the new fund of €250,000 ($309,000) at the launch of this year’s league at the Aviva stadium on Tuesday. That money will accompany the UEFA Solidarity Funding which already goes toward youth development, "bringing the minimum that will be spent in that area" to €1.15M ($1.42M) (RTÉ, 2/13).
Inter Milan launched the Inter Academy Indonesia in Bandung on Tuesday, marking the first step toward creating a first-class youth development program for coaches and young footballers across the country. The first stage of Inter Academy Indonesia will see Nerazzurri coaches sharing Inter's coaching methodology and expertise with young players and coaching staff of the elite teams in PERSIB Bandung’s youth academy (Inter Milan).
