Maradona not to coach France's Montpellier

Reigning French Ligue 1 champions Montpellier Hérault Sport Club have decided not to sign Argentinian Diego Armando Maradona as their club coach from next season onwards.

Montpellier president Louis Nicollin had revealed last week that he was in talks with Maradona to become the Ligue 1 clubs new coach in place of René Girard, but talks broke down and Nicollin announced today there would be no deal.

"No, Maradona will not come to Montpellier. There are too many agents involved in this affair for my liking," Nicollin told French paper L'Equipe.

"It's all a bit of a mess and I have had enough of it. Not of Maradona, but of all the agents involved. The entire story is giving me a headache," he added.

Maradona, one of the best players of all times, has been struggling as a coach since ending his playing career.

Paris Saint Germain to sport new logo next season

French Ligue 1 club FC Paris Saint Germain will sport a new logo from the 2013/14 season ords as the club from Paris continues to strengthening its brand identity and further push to become a bigger player amongst Europe's football elite.

The club is a press release stated, "Paris Saint-Germain has chosen to capitalise on the strongest element of the brand, namely Paris itself.

The city of light, which is an undisputed icon throughout the world, represents unparalleled leverage to propel Paris Saint-Germain up among the greatest global sporting brands. The new logo thus has the name "Paris" clearly brought to the fore, with the Eiffel Tower at the heart of the logo. The base of the logo has the name "Saint Germain" which continues to be associated with the brand, along with the fleur de lys emblem.

The logo has a greater synthesis of ideas and a more immediate impact, and is now ideally placed to capture the imagination of football and sports fans around the world."

Here the old PSG logo

Following in the footsteps of international football's major clubs and under the impetus of its President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Paris Saint-Germain has chosen to prioritise continuity for its new identity. The new concept brings the brand up to the level of the standards of excellence set by Paris itself, respecting its DNA and its history.

The font is inspired by Paris' major brands, the colors have been made more luminous and highlighted with a hint of gold, while the Eiffel Tower is the veritable heartbeat of the logo. The result is a timeless brand which is resolutely Parisian yet totally international.

"The evolution of the Paris Saint-Germain logo marks an important stage in the implementing of our ambition," said Nasser Al-Khelaifi, "namely making Paris Saint-Germain one of the world's greatest sporting brands."

French Ligue 1 on Ten Sports for three seasons!

The Zee Group owned Ten Sports has signed a three years multi-platform deal for south Asia to show the French Football League from this season, 2012/13 onwards. The deal has been negotiated by rights agency MP&Silva, which include 232 matches from the French top division - Ligue 1 along with games from the French League Cup plus a weekly Ligue 1 Preview show.

Ten Sports has been on the lookout to add quality football content to their channels after losing the rights to the Spanish La Liga from this season onwards to ESPN-Star Sports. Amongst the top 5 leagues in Europe - English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 - only the French rights were still available.

The channels TenAction+ and Ten HD in the Ten stable of sports channel are the football specific channel which will from now on show French football.

The Zeel sports business CEO Atul Pande said, "Acquisition of the French League, one of the most competitive football leagues in Europe, underlines our commitment to football fans in the region as we continue providing the most entertaining content to our viewers, and an excellent promotional platform for our advertisers. We have established a strong tradition in building and strengthening top-class football properties on our channels with the reach of our networks, multiple media platforms and world-class match presentation."

The 20 team Ligue 1 will have 38 rounds of matches home-and-away with their star attractions being Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique Marseille and the high spending FC Paris Saint-Germain with their start-studded line-up which includes new signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Thiago Silva besides Javier Pastore, Thiago Motta and Jérémy Ménez.

Andrea Radrizzani, the MP&Silva Group CEO, said on the deal, "We are delighted to facilitate the growth of French football in India. European football TV audiences in India are rapidly growing, attracting more interest from leagues, competitions, sponsors and players to satisfy this appetite."

Besides the French rights the Ten stable also has the rights to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, the English Carling Cup, the Npower Football League (English Championship, League One, League Two) besides the Dutch Eredivisie and Scottish Premier League for the upcoming 2012/13 season.

Évian Thonon Gaillard FC - The French new boys

Many of you will not have heard of newly promoted French Ligue 1 side Évian Thonon Gaillard FC, who are making headline news after moving up from the fourth division to the top tier of French football over the last four years. Évian TG started their campaign in Ligue 1 yesterday with a two-all away draw against Stade Brest.

Évian Thonon Gaillard FC isn't a club from a big city, but the club from the Rhone-Alpes area was originally based in Gaillard near the Swiss border and then moved to Thonon-les-Bains in 2007 as part of a club merger between L'Olympique Croix de Savoie 74 and another local club L'Olympique Thonon-Chablais. In 2009 the president of the Danone Group, Franck Riboud, was made honorary president of the football club with the clubs name being changed to Évian Thonon Gaillard FC.

Interestingly Evian is a well-known French water brand of the Danone Group and initially Franck Riboud also put in money to help the club move up into the top tier. Now the club is in Ligue 1 and will try to fight to stay in the top tier before potentially bigger things to come.

Évian TG's biggest signing over the summer has been former Olympique Lyonnais player Sidney Govou from Panathinaikos Athens, while the others bring top level experience to the club.

Évian TG only have one big problem, the lack of a suitable stadium as their home ground can only hold 2,000 spectators. The club considered of shifting their home matches to their neighbouring town of Geneva, but that lies in Switzerland so UEFA did not allow them this move. So they had to shift to the Parc des Sports in Annecy with a new stadium to be build along with an appropriate training complex for a top division club.