Message of the week
February: Manchester United launch a drive to “engage multi-ethnic young women in sports” and extend the club’s core “respect and inclusion” message to fans. November: Vice-chair Ed Glazer named as a Trump campaign backer, with a £44,000 donation.
• High on Trump’s agenda this month: delaying the class-action fraud lawsuit against his defunct Trump University scheme. Claimants say promises Trump made in a 2005 infomercial filmed in his Trump Tower neighbour Chuck Blazer’s flat were false; Trump – who gave the disgraced Fifa executive a $5,000 rent rebate for the shoot – denies wrongdoing.
Among football’s reactions to last week’s win:
a) Fifa’s Jack Warner, still fighting extradition to the US on racketeering charges, reminiscing in the Trinidad Guardian: “Immediately on the morning he won I sent him a congratulatory email on his stunning victory … From 1990 to 2010 my apartment was on the 52nd floor of Trump Tower, opposite his, and we were accustomed to greeting each other. I would also often go to his casino in Atlantic City, so I’m all for him, and I wish him all the best.”
b) Steaua Bucharest owner Gigi Becali – out on parole from his corruption sentence – calling Trump “heaven sent” and describing their similarities. “Nine years ago he wanted to build offices on some of my land [in Bucharest]. The deal was good and profitable for both parties, but I wanted to call it the Becali-Trump building, and he the reverse. We could not proceed.”
• Becali’s conclusion from last week’s result: politics isn’t for women - “How could a woman be the most powerful man in the world?” - but a glass ceiling has been broken: “Maybe soon, in a few years, we’ll see Romania’s Trump. Maybe you’ll see the Becali Trump. Just maybe Trump is the model that proves you don’t need to be educated to be a great leader.”
Elsewhere: Midas update
April 2013: Sepp Blatter lays the first brick at his new £114m Fifa museum: “You see a very happy president standing before you today. This is a great day, for me personally, and for Fifa.” Nov 2016: Museum officials project a £24.5m first-year loss.
• Also last week from Sepp’s era:
a) Former Venezuela FA head Rafael Esquivel pleading guilty to seven fraud counts and forfeiting $16m of his takings.
b) Former Concacaf head Alfredo Hawit facing a life ban for racketeering, 17 months after he took over from disgraced racketeer Jeffrey Webb with a clean-up pledge: “We will deliver on our commitments to our fans”.
c) Former Zambia FA head Kalusha Bwalya winning the FA’s endorsement to run for Fifa Council next year, despite being investigated over an alleged $50,000 bribe. He denies wrongdoing.
Meanwhile: sharpest reflex
New Fifa Secretary General Fatma Samoura, asked in a Doha press conference about Qatar’s slave-state problem: “I don’t waste my time answering these… everywhere you go, there are human rights issues. Qatar and Russia are no exceptions.”
Plus: making Fifa great again
Fifa 2.0 head Gianni Infantino, upset by coverage of his private jet habit. “I have also flown Easyjet. I will fly whatever is more convenient.” His wider message: “We need to show a Fifa which is more normal, more humble. We are normal people. We are football people.”
Other news: best optimism
July, Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey plays down criticism of the new Checkatrade Trophy format. “The next stage is getting the group stage under way and the draw has thrown up some exciting prospects. I’m looking forward to seeing how the competition develops and the reaction it gets from the crowd.” November, after Middlesbrough’s game against Shrewsbury attracts a crowd of 308. “Let’s see how things progress. All cup football takes on a different guise when it becomes a knock-out competition.”
Manager news: moving on
• 1 Oct, QPR owner Tony Fernandes posts a selfie with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. “Could not be happier for this man. A decent man who works his socks off for QPR. Loyalty is a strange word in football but we are family and we are QPR and we stand by our family.” 5 Nov: Sacks him.
• Italy, 28 Oct, Inter’s board confirm “100% backing for Frank de Boer”; chief sports officer Piero Ausilio tells the press: “A lot of people are offering themselves for his job, but it’s not happening. The bench belongs to Frank.” 1 Nov, Inter: “We wish Frank the best for the future.”
• Brazil: 31 Oct: Fluminense president Peter Siemsen holds clear-the-air talks with coach Levir Culpi. “My objective was to listen, to hear Levir’s passion and belief - and I liked what I heard. It’s clear: soon the errors will stop, the wins will come, and we will turn the page.” 7 Nov: Sacks him.
Happiest guy of the week
Brazil: Guarani defender Ferreira, upset by “harsh” coverage of him flooring a referee after being sent off. “I read stuff that says I freaked out. That wasn’t a freak out. I was sent off wrongly so I just did what I did. I’m a good guy, a happy guy. I always do my best.”
Best outlook
Romania: Former Gloria Buzau coach Viorel Ion – given a long-term match-fixing ban in May along with assistant Romeo Bunică and 14 players – on their new life: “Football’s a joke, a circus, so now we’re into farming. I work the tractor, Bunica drives the plough, the players assist. We embrace hard work.”
Most engaged
Lyon owner Jean-Michel Aulas, 67, handling “deplorable” Lyon fans on Twitter – asking one: “With your nine followers, who do you think you are?” In 2014 he told another persistent critic to “go to bed”; the boy, aged eight, hit back: “You’re not my father, you don’t set my bedtime.”
Plus: setback of the week
Ghana’s FA – calling off a plan to use reggae star Shatta Wale to boost dwindling crowds after he quoted £16,000 per half-time show. FA head Kwesi Nyantkyi’s previous best plan: 2015’s effort to deploy “sexy ladies” in “nice jeans”. “We do that, and men will jump to the stadia, purposely to see the ladies.” Official Takyi Arhin: “I agree. For wherever you see flowers, there are bees.”