So called football fan Gary Mann is due to be shipped out to Portugal today in order to serve out a 24 month prison sentence for his part in a serious riots which took place during the Euro 2004 competition.
The Portuguese prosecutors had originally decided that they would deport Mann back to the UK rather than having to serve out his jail sentence at one of the countries penal facilities. But then back at the beginning of 2009 they opted to put out a European extradition warrant in order to fast track his return to Portugal in order to serve out his original two-year sentence.
Since then Mann has been through a drawn-out extradition battle that finally ended up in Strasbourg at the European Court of human rights, who two days ago completely rejected his appeal fighting the extradition procedure.
Now aged 52, Mann is a former firefighter who was arrested shortly after the Albufeira, Algarve, riot humans taken into custody and then using a fast tracking court procedure set up especially to deal with cases during the football championship was tried and convicted within four hours of his arrest.
12 men were tried at the same time and were represented by two lawyers and one interpreter. In his defence Mann pointed out that a Humberside police officer, Detective Constable Alan Rutter, who was representing the British police and assisting the Portuguese authorities during the championships was present at the trial and later described the process as ‘a farce’
Mann decided that he would accept deportation out of the country in return for a guilty plea, which is what then happened. But following this the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, made his feelings very clear stating that the British government intended to ‘nail’ man for his part in embarrassing the country, some time later the Portuguese authorities mysteriously issued the warrant to bring him back to the country to serve out his sentence.
David Beckham is still the highest earning football player across the globe for the third year in a row, according to the annual feature in Forbes magazine. In 2009 the 35 year old football player earned £40m out of which 80% came from his sponsors, who include Giorgio Armani, Adidas, and Motorola. Beckham unfortunately is predicted to lose some of his larger sponsorship money this year due to the fact that he tore his archilles tendon in March, which will force him to sit out the South African World Cup. Second on the Forbes list was Christiano Ronaldo who earned £30m in the past year. Credits to his name include the 2008 World Player of the Year and the title of the highest salary paid football player in the world when Real Madrid purchased him from Manchester United. His contract is for six years and started at about £15.5m but will increase by a quarter every year after. Sponsors of Ronaldo include Coca-Cola, Giorgio Armani, and Nike. In third place on the list of top earners is Kaka also a Madrid player who earns £25m per year. His sponsors are also Giorgio Armani and Adidas. Fourth place is Ronaldinho who also earns £25m per year and in fifth place is the Barcelona striker from France Thierry Henry who earns about £24m per year. Last year Beckham was estimated by Forbes to have earned £46m while Ronaldinho was estimated to make £33m in second place and Henry was in third place with £28m.
Manchester United may not have earned a place in the Champions League and will have to scrape to keep their Premier League title, but they still have been able to keep the lead as one of the most valuable clubs globally.