Mourinho Worried About Bird Flu

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has dismissed concerns about the teams poor recent form, which has seen second place Manchester United cut a 15 point lead in half, and instead turned his focus on bird flue after a Swan was found in Scotland with the condition :
 
"Pressure? No. For me, pressure is bird flu. I'm serious. I'm feeling a lot of pressure with the swan in Scotland. You are laughing but I'm serious, it's not far. I am more scared of the swan than football. What is football compared to life? For me the swan is the drama of the last two days. Maybe I have to buy some masks or something."

Man United Sign Record Sponsorship Deal

Manchester United have signed a four year shirt sponsorship deal with AIG (American International Group) worth €80 million euros. The figure is a joint record for shirt sponsorship. Next season Real Madrid's contract with BenQ, also worth €20 million euros a season, comes into effect.

Juve Take Vow of Silence

Following criticism from the Italian media and their own supporters after their Champions League exit to Arsenal, Juventus director Luciano Moggi has announced a press silence :

“This is a time for reflection. It will help our environment rediscover the tranquillity which is needed. We are saddened by the verbal assault that we have suffered (from their supporters and the media). You can say anything you want about the side, but don’t say that they showed no bails.”

"We are being treated in a way which we do not deserve when you look at what we have achieved up to now. After all, we have a nine-point lead over the second side in the championship. Arsenal? A football team just can’t win every game, there are opponents out there too who in this case were in better form than us. Up to now Juventus have done what is required, in fact possibly even more. We are not invincible and therefore I don’t understand why we are being treated like this."

Kohler Sacked

Duisburg have sacked Jurgen Kohler. The club had been struggling in the relegation zone of the Bundesliga even before Kohler was appointed 11 weeks ago. Heiko Scholz will take over until the end of the season.

PSG & Marseille Docked a Point

PSG and Marseille have been docked a point each following a row over last months league match between the two clubs. Marseille complained over security issues following trouble in the past. One incident in 2002 left a Marseille supporter paralysed after a seat had been thrown by PSG fans. Marseille claim PSG refused to sell them an agreed number of tickets and were furious with PSG's decision to set visitor fans beneath PSG supporters. In protest Marseille sent a B team to the Parc Des Price and told their supporters not to travel to Paris for the match, which ended 0-0.

Adidas Set For World Cup Fortune

Adidas group chairman Herbert Hainer said the company are on course to meet their target of €1 billion in revenue from football products this year, cashing in on this summer's World Cup finals tournament :

"We're more than satisfied with the sales of World Cup products. We'll meet all the goals we have set ourselves for the World Cup. We're going to sell more than 10 million footballs, 500,000 football shirts of the German national team and more than 1.5 million Adidas football shirts."

Riley Lauded For Stance on Racism

The FA have leapt to the defence of referee Mike Riley after Levski Sofia's president Todor Batkov disgracefully branded him 'a British homosexual' because he urged the crowd to stop chanting racist abuse at Schalke striker  Gerald Asamoah during a UEFA Cup match.

The FA's head of refereeing Neal Barry said :

"Mike is to be thoroughly applauded for his actions in informing UEFA and club officials that he had encountered totally unacceptable racist abuse being aimed at Gerald Asamoah. At the beginning of each season, officials are directed to do exactly as Mike did should they encounter similar situations in this country. By notifying club officials, the club are then asked to put an announcement out over the public address system, and should such chanting not cease, he would then report this to the FA. Mike is one of this country's top officials, hence his appointment by UEFA for such a prestigious quarter-final tie, and the subsequent comments by the Levski Sofia president have also been reported today by myself to UEFA, as they are deeply offensive."