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Posts Tagged ‘sports’

• Ian Ayre questions value of stadium naming rights
• ‘There is no benchmark to generate that amount’

Liverpool’s managing director, Ian Ayre, has joined Arsène Wenger in questioning the legality of Manchester City’s record sponsorship deal with Etihad. Speaking in the Malaysian capital, where earlier in the week the Arsenal manager had said that City’s new agreement raised “the real question about the credibility of financial fair play”, Ayre also queried the £400m deal.

Under financial fair play, clubs cannot avoid the requirement to stay below aggregate losses of €45m (£39.5m) a year by effectively sponsoring themselves with what are known as related payments. Since Etihad, an airline that has the same number of aircraft as Flybe and has never declared a profit, is owned by the same Bin Zayed family that rules the emirate and owns Manchester City, Ayre believes it is a related deal and has called on Uefa to investigate the matter further.

“When I spoke at Soccerex earlier this year I was on a panel about financial fair play,” Ayre said. “The guys from Uefa said there would be a robust and proper process about related-pay transactions. Is Etihad, Manchester City and Sheikh Mansour a related party? If they are, then it’s up to Uefa to rule on them.”

The other test the Etihad sponsorship would have to overcome is whether it represents “fair value”. Manchester City have pointed out that the £40m a year arrangement also provides for redevelopment work around Eastlands as well as shirt sponsorship and naming rights. However, Ayre questioned whether the naming rights to any stadium – especially one that already has a name – are worth anything like the money the airline has agreed to pay.

“It hasn’t happened in Europe that a football club has renamed an existing stadium and it’s had real value,” he said. “It was the City of Manchester Stadium or Eastlands for the last nine years and now it’s going to be called something different and someone has attached a huge amount of value to that.

“I find that odd because it has never been done before. There is no benchmark that says you can rename your stadium and generate that amount of value. Mike Ashley tried it at Newcastle but nobody called it Sports Direct@St James’ Park and it certainly didn’t have that kind of

• Council gives Liverpool reprieve over deadline for work to begin
• Club looking into possibility of redeveloping existing stadium

Liverpool have been granted a reprieve over plans for a 60,000-plus-seat stadium at Stanley Park after planning consents expired last month. The local‑authority deadline for approved works to take place elapsed on 19

• ‘I am happy, calm and comfortable here,’ says Reina
• Keeper had hinted he might leave if club could not compete

The Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has eased fears at the club that he may try to leave this summer by talking openly about his desire to stay and “fight for titles” at Anfield.

The Spain international had suggested previously this season that he might try to further his career away from Liverpool, like Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres, if the club failed to meet his ambitions. But the 28-year-old, who is believed to have a £20m release clause in his current five-year contract, now appears to see a future for himself at a club that has been rejuvenated under the caretaker manager, Kenny Dalglish.

“I am happy, calm and comfortable here,” Reina told the Spanish radio station Cadena Cope. “[I am] looking towards the future which I reckon will bring a lot of happiness and hopefully the new project with the new American owners [Fenway Sports Group] will be a convincing one.

“Obviously [Rafael] Benítez brought me here but that doesn’t mean that I’m unhappy with [Kenny] Dalglish, quite the opposite. I think he’s the ideal man for Liverpool at this moment.

“It’s my understanding, and based on what I’ve gathered from the people here, that we will be bringing in some important players, continuing to grow and hopefully in one or two years we will be in the place that Liverpool deserves to be, which is fighting for titles.”

Reina had been linked with Manchester United but moved to ease Liverpool fans’ concerns that he might be an option to replace Edwin van der Sar at the end of the season. “I am not going to Manchester, that is not my intention,” he said. “I don’t know if I am a candidate for them; I am sure that they have evaluated a lot of goalkeepers, not just [David] De Gea or Reina.”

LiverpoolGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk