Novelist signs up as ‘The Daggers’ writer in residence

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Novelist signs up as 'The Daggers' writer in residence

Novelist signs up as ‘The Daggers’ writer in residence

Dagenham and Redbridge FC have announced that they have signed their first ever writer in residence, Ian Ayris, the sports fiction and crime novelist and lifelong fan of the Daggers. He will be joining the club in a number of projects that are community related in a bid to bring football and writing together.

Ian has been attending matches at Victoria Road for more than 3 decades and is delighted to be able to play a part in both the club and the community. Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club managing director, Steve Thompson said, “Ian is a great fan of the club and we are happy to be working with him bringing football and increasing literary skills into the community. This will involve projects in schools and at the club engaging young people and fans of the club.”

Ian said, “Football clubs have a lot of influence with young people and in the community in general, especially clubs like The Daggers who are still very much a family club with family values. So it’s great to be here at the club I love and be able to work with them giving something back. I am looking forward to working with the club not just in schools but also on a project charting the history of the club with fans which we hope to produce as a book.”

Steve Thompson continued, “As a club we want to reach kids who have an interest in football at all levels. Not all will want to play or have the ability to make it as a professional footballer, but by making the most of their education they can broaden their options. Some may want to write about football or just improve their writing skills, and that’s where we as a club working with Ian, can give them inspiration.”

Ian’s novel, Abide with Me published by Caffeine Nights Publishing, hit the number one spot in Amazon’s sports fiction chart and is still the highest rated title in that section with over 50 reviews, including 44 5 star reviews. Part East End crime fiction, part passage of rites tale with football at its heart, Abide with Me is a moving tale charting the life of two boys given a raw deal in life.

 

 

£175m carrot dangled in front of 4 premiership teams to play in Quatar dream league

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A recent report from four English clubs says that £175 million has been offered for each of them to play in a new Dream Football League team in Qatar along with other countries in the Gulf in 2015. Qatar will host games where Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal will be playing against foreign opponents.

Qatari organisers have planned astonishing projects that could completely change the footballing map around the world if it gains enough support. The funds are much higher than those available to Champions League teams, which has an annual prize of £595 million.

The plans, which will be released next month, will see these teams earn over four times that amount for simply accepting the invitation to compete in the matches in the Gulf. The four Premier League teams will be enticed to join the permanent DFL members, currently 16, plus eight other clubs worldwide which would compete on an invitational basis.

The DFL would take place over the next two years, according to a Times article, and the European Clubs Association has not yet replied to these proposals. It does remain unlikely that existing football teams would change their calendar or money structures even though these new offers are so much higher.

Right now, Qatar associations are considered as outsiders before they enter the 2022 Fifa World Cup, but their investment in elite teams from sovereign funds in Barcelona and other regions show a strong commitment to become a presence in football. Qatar Sports recently completed a complete takeover of the Paris Saint-Germain as well.

Finances not improving at Liverpool

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Liverpool Football Club has revealed that its financial troubles are not getting any better. In fact, the challenge is getting much worse as the European elite team has reached an unprecedented £87 million of debt, an impressive increase from £22 million in 2011, a sobering result from the economically harsh landscape in Anfield.

The current owners of the team, Fenway Sports Group, tried to offer various explanations as to why this situation has come about. The arguments surround the Champions League but concerns raised by some observers point to the figures covering the period between August 2011 to early 2012 where Ian Ayre, the managing director of the team, oversaw the biggest debt increase thanks to payment transfers. Former employees were paid over £30 million a year such as former manager Kenny Dalglish, leading to the impact we can now see.

In a recent press event, the team has tried to reassure fans and supporters that this is just a temporary setback and that the next European season including the Champions League would help bring the finances back under control. But many are still unsure where the enormous amount of necessary funds will be coming from.

Some of the reveals in these figures include a £120 million package that was used to refinance the team from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Bank of America. These types of financial moves do not help to bring more confidence in the management of the Liverpool club, and could make it hard for the manager to gain back the fans’ respect.

 

David Beckham takes up his role as global ambassador for China

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Football is gaining ground in China and now David Beckham has become the global ambassador for China in order to help manage the country’s image and reputation at the big game. The Chinese Super League is the name of the national team and it has recently been under a lot of scrutiny as players have left the team to join other brands instead. Didier Drogba is one high profile player who left, plus the group has suffered from a scandal about match fixing recently which certainly does not help its case.

At 37 years old, Beckham will help the team while still maintaining his day job playing for St-Germain in Paris. In a recent press event, he said that this was an important role for him, and that this was time for the country to help shape Chinese football in history. In this new role, he will help China set matches up and promote the team to children and others. He also says that there are a lot of potential football fans in China which need to discovery the sport with proper marketing efforts.

The Chinese team has had a hard time getting into matches recently, with Ivory Coast recently removing the China position in their matches for Turkish teams instead, a controversial move that China contested.

The recent player departures also did not help the team which may now be struggling to be able to participate in 2013 matches starting this month. Corruption has also been alleged in the Chinese Super League with many officials being banned by Fifa. Needless to say, Beckham may have his work cut out for him

Victoria Beckham to meet her Parisian alter ego

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If Victoria Beckham plans to fit in while she is in Paris she is going to have to fit in with the WAG that runs everything in Paris; which is a rather tough task given the fact that Queen Bee Helena Seger is known as an icy cold businesswoman. Posh is scheduled to meet the blonde Swedish woman at Paris Saint-Germain, David Beckham’s new club, when he plays against Marseille on Sunday.

PSG sources are warning that Seger is hard to impress, but given the fact that Seger is basically like the Posh of France, she is not someone that Posh will want to get on the wrong side of either if she hopes to fit in with a new group of WAGs.

A source close to Seger states that she is known as the Beckham of Paris, and as such she is not going to be happy at all that the real Beckham is encroaching on her grounds and stealing the spotlight away. She is the partner of Zlatan Ibrahimovic the striker who also admits that she can be an intimidating presence, but if Beckham is going to fit in she will need to attempt to befriend her in some way.

Seger is said to be a very shrewd woman that is elegant, classy, and comes from a well known and reputable family. However, despite this fact she carved her own way in the world and made her own riches based on her ambition.

In France Seger is known for her fashion sense which also might pit her against Beckham who of course is becoming a household name across the world for her fashion house. Chances are high that these two will either bond over their similarities or end up embattled in a huge rivalry throughout David’s time with the club.