Manchester United & Juventus deny Kolkata game on August 1

There was news over the last few days that English Premier League giants Manchester United could take on Italian Serie A champions Juventus Torino in a friendly match at the Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata on August 1. In informal communication with both clubs my contacts have denied any such match taking place though showing interest to play in India in the future if their match fees and other amenities are taken care off.

Manchester United have confirmed now officially to journalist colleagues in the UK at Press Association Sport that there would be no match this summer in India as the club is still to announce their final plans for the summer friendlies which is likely to include China and South Africa besides a match in Norway against Valerenga Oslo on August 5.

This comes just a couple of days after West Bengal Sports Minister Madan Mitra announced that talks were ongoing with Manchester United and Juventus to sort out everything before the match was finally announced though no clearance was sought from the AIFF.

Speculation surrounding such a match comes just weeks after a match between FC Barcelona and Inter Milan was supposed to be played in Kolkata on May 19, the day of the UEFA Champions League final, with the match called-off weeks after it was supposed to take place.

This once more leaves Indian football or organisation of international matches in India in bad light...

Juventus FC open new stadium on Thursday

Italian giants Juventus Torino will inaugurate their new home, the Juventus Arena on Thursday and hope to enter a new era in the history of the 113 years old club who fittingly are called Vecchia Signora (The Old Lady).

The stadium has cost the club from the Piedmont 122 Million Euros and will have a capacity of 41,000 spectators. The new stadium has been build at Juventus' old home the 'Stadio Delle Alpi' and will get a new sponsor name once marketing partners Sportfive sell the naming rights.

Juventus hope their new stadium will be the home for years to come. Before the 1990 FIFA World Cup Juventus played their home games at the Stadio Comunale, then for the World Cup the 'Stadio Delle Alpi' was build but Juventus and their fans never became happy with the venue, so they worked on plans over the last decade to build a football specific ground and in the construction phase they played at the 'Stadio Olimpico' along with city rivals Torino FC.

For the club the stadium was a necessity to enhance their income and offer better facilities to well-paying fans with the stadium having 4,000 business seats and the club have been able to sell 85% of these, which has positively surprised the club management.

Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero said, "My fourth stadium in black-and-white, that's my strangest record and certainly a tough one to beat. I hope it will absorb all the victorious energy of the delle Alpi."

"This time we're really at home and I hope that will create a feeling between us and the fans who could become our 12th man," del Piero added.

The stadium opens on Thursday with a match against English League One side Notts County FC.

Leverkusen's Arturo Vidal signs for Juventus

Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal is leaving Bundesliga side Bayer 04 Leverkusen after four seasons in Germany to join Italian Serie A giants Juventus Torino on a five year contract.

The 24 year old Vidal has been in the news across the summer with the player wanting to leave Leverkusen for a bigger club, ideally German rivals FC Bayern Munich but Bayer 04 Leverkusen made it clear that they would only sell Vidal to a club outside of Germany. This saw interest from Italy, Spain and England with Leverkusen saying that the fee would have to be above 10 Million Euros to tempt them to sell the player.

"I'm happy, it's a big and important step for my career at one of the biggest clubs in Europe," said Vidal in Santiago de Chile before leaving for Italy.

"I'm very content about this new opportunity that I'm being given. It's a new team which is being built with the aim of being champions and qualifying for international competitions."

Vidal added, "My experience in Germany will be useful to me in Italy because tactically it's a similar kind of football."

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Director of Sports Rudi Voeller has been in Italy over the last few days to work out the details of the transfer with Juventus. In the end a fee of 10,5 Million Euros was decided which could rise to 12 Million Euros in the case of success. 30% of Vidal's rights still lie with Chilean club Colo Colo, who earn 3,6 Million Euros from the deal.

In Munich the management of Bayern Munich aren't too happy about Vidal's move as they thought they would get Vidal from Leverkusen this summer even though it was proving to be difficult. Their coach Jupp Heynckes, last seasons coach at Leverkusen, was sure to sign Vidal; but now the player seems to have become restless and wanting a move so he signed for Juventus.

Deloitte Football Money League: Real Madrid top again!

The Deloitte Football Money League 2009/10 has been released with Spanish giants Real Madrid topping the league table of the world's 20 richest football clubs for the sixth straight year, according to auditing firm Deloitte.

For the first time the combined revenues of the 20 biggest football clubs in the world has crossed the 4 billion Euros mark and now stands at 4,3 billion Euros an increase of 8,3 percent with all these clubs coming out of Europe. England remains the most represented with seven out of the top 20 clubs from the Premier League, four each from Germany and Italy, three from Spain plus two from France.

But once more Spain's big two are the highest revenue earners in world football. Though playing second fiddle to FC Barcelona in the Spanish league Real Madrid have been able to increase their revenues by 37.2 million Euros from the previous season to now an impressive 438,6 million Euros with Barca 40,5 million Euros behind. But the Catalans could close the gap considerably through their 30 million Euros per annum sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation.

Meanwhile the biggest jump came from big spending Manchester City who have come from 19th to 11th in the table and the Deloitte researchers think in coming seasons they along with Tottenham Hotspurs would make it into the top ten. Who they could replace was not said, but most likely the Italian clubs who are falling behind and maybe even Liverpool without European football.


Deloitte Football Money League - 2009/2010 Top 20

01. (01) Real Madrid 438,6 million Euros
02. (02) FC Barcelona 398,1 million Euros
03. (03) Manchester United 349,8 million Euros
04. (04) FC Bayern Munich 323,0 million Euros
05. (05) FC Arsenal London 274,1 million Euros
06. (06) FC Chelsea London 255,9 million Euros
07. (10) AC Milan 235,8 million Euros
08. (07) FC Liverpool 225,3 million Euros
09. (09) Inter Milan 224,8 million Euros
10. (08) Juventus Torino 205,0 million Euros
11. (19) Manchester City 152,8 million Euros
12. (15) Tottenham Hotspurs 146,3 million Euros
13. (11) Hamburger SV 146,2 million Euros
14. (13) Olympique Lyonnais 146,1 million Euros
15. (14) Olympique Marseille 141,1 million Euros
16. (16) FC Schalke 04 139,8 million Euros
17. (--) Atlético de Madrid 124,5 million Euros
18. (12) AS Roma 122,7 million Euros
19. (--) VfB Stuttgart 114,8 million Euros
20. (--) Aston Villa 109,4 million Euros