Atletico Madrid and former cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are among the owners of eight franchises of a new Indian league set to kick off later this year.
Atletico and former India captain Ganguly were part of the consortium that won the bid for the Kolkata team in the Indian Super League (ISL), proposed to start in mid-September.
The ISL is bank-rolled by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, Rupert Murdoch’s Star India and sports group IMG.
Former batting great Tendulkar bagged the Kochi team with PVP Ventures, a company which has interests in real estate and media.
Del Piero leads Sydney into play-offs
Former Juventus great Alessandro Del Piero will be assured of another game with Sydney FC after helping the A-League club book a place in the play-offs with a 2-1 win over Perth Glory yesterday.
Del Piero, whose two-year contract expires at the end of the season, set up both his team’s goals at Sydney Stadium in the final match of the regular season to put the Sky Blues into an elimination play-off at Melbourne Victory this week.
The evergreen Italian laid off a cross that Terry Antonis hammered into the net on 38 minutes.
Though Rostyn Griffiths equalised for Glory on the stroke of half-time, Del Piero deftly lofted a pass towards Richard Garcia who struck home in injury time.
Ancelotti ignoring Barcelona slip-up
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti does not think Barcelona’s shock defeat at Granada will have any bearing on Wednesday’s Copa del Rey final between the arch rivals.
The Primera Liga champions went down 1-0 in Andalusia on Saturday, allowing Ancelotti’s men to climb into second place with a 4-0 home win over Almeria.
Attention now turns to the midweek cup final at the Mestalla.
“It was a surprise as Barca have more quality than Granada, but at this time of the season all teams are fighting for a goal,” he said.
“Still, I don’t think it will change the dynamic of Wednesday’s match. It will be very tough and we have to prepare well for it.”
Guardiola wary of Bayern easing off
Coach Pep Guardiola suggested his heavy rotation policy could have been to blame as Bayern Munich suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time since November 2011.
A 3-0 loss at home to Borussia Dortmund will not affect the destiny of the Bundesliga title but it did show that the Bavarians are fallible after a 53-game unbeaten streak was ended at Augsburg.
“It happened to me in Barcelona too that, after we had clinched the league title, we struggled to raise our game ,” he said.
“The aim as coach is to build the team up again. Maybe I made a mistake.”
Dortmund keeping tabs on Immobile
Ciro Immobile could play in the Bundesliga next season after his agent confirmed that Borussia Dortmund are on the trails of the Italy striker.
Immobile, who is co-owned by Torino and Juventus, has set the Serie A alight this season after scoring 19 goals for Torino and is a firm candidate to form part of Cesare Prandelli’s squad for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil.
“At the moment no official proposal has arrived to me or to Torino,” agent Marco Sommella told German television.
“There has been contact with some clubs, that I cannot deny.
“The dream of all players is to be at a big club and we know Borussia Dortmund are following him with great interest.”
Wigan will bounce back says Carson
Goalkeeper Scott Carson is confident Wigan can regroup from their FA Cup semi-final penalty shoot-out heartache against Arsenal and get back to Wembley in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.
The Latics – conquers of Manchester City in the quarter-finals last month – were just seven minutes away from pulling off another major shock after going ahead through a penalty from Jordi Gomez on the hour.
However, Per Mertesacker’s late equaliser sent the tie into extra-time and Arsenal eventually went on to the lottery of a shoot-out.
“It just wasn’t to be, but we have to give ourselves credit and we can be proud that we took them all the way to penalties,” Carson said.
“Our aim now is to come back here in May in the play-off final.
“We should take a lot of confidence out of this, come back, and cement ourselves in the top flight.
Kovacic determined to stay at Inter
Mateo Kovacic has no plans to leave Inter in the near future despite being consistently linked with a move to the English Premier League.
Reports said the Croatian midfielder has attracted the interest of Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool but he has a clear mind on where his future lies.
“The papers have to write something,” the 19-year-old said.
“I’ve learned in football that there is always something to speculate on. It doesn’t weight on me. I have a contract until 2017, my future is with Inter and I am very happy to be a part of it.”