Sir Alex Ferguson is under discussion as a potential coach for a British football team at the 2012
Olympic Games in London. According to Lord Sebastian Coe, the organising committee chairman, he has already spoken to the coach of the English champions and Champions League winners Manchester United. “I would love to have him there because he is a phenomenal coach,” explained Coe. He said that Scotsman Ferguson would be the ideal man for the job, if Britain’s separate football associations decide to enter a joint team. However, Coe stressed that the final word lay with the associations and the British Olympic Association (BOA).

It has been revealed that the Camorra crime syndicate was operating undercover in an attempt to acquire Italian club Lazio, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange. In July, the Italian authorities announced that ten people had been arrested in Rome on suspicion of money laundering. The suspects had allegedly attempted to purchase Lazio shares in order to launder Camorra funds and thus acquire a controlling stake in the club. Those arrested included the Neapolitan businessman Giuseppe Diana, who is known for his involvement with the mafia. Authorities also ordered the arrest of former Lazio midfielder Giorgio Chinaglia, who was ordered to pay a fine of 4.2 million euros last November for his part in a scandal in which he was accused of trying to influence the price of Lazio shares. Chinaglia, who once played alongside Pele and Franz Beckenbauer at New York Cosmos, told the Italian media in 2005 that a Hungarian Pharmaceuticals company was interested in acquiring Lazio. This led to a sharp hike in the share price of the club, which has been listed since 2000, before the entire story was shown to be false. The former pro is also accused of threatening and blackmailing Lazio president Claudio Lotito. it is alleged that Chinaglia turned to violence-prone ultras in an attempt to coerce the Lazio boss into selling the club. As a result, Lotito has been under police protection since 2006.

Claudio Taffarel is also treading a new path. The former Brazil goal-keeper, who played in three FIFA World Cup™ final competitions with the selecao, now regularly commutes between Porto Alegre and his adopted home Parma on footballing duties. Nowadays, however, the 42-year-old is his own boss and no longer contracted to a club, as was the case for many years. Together with former Atletico Mineiro team mate Paulo Roberto, now a qualified lawyer, Taffarel has set up a company dealing with the management of professional footballers. Trading under the name “Taffarel & Paulo Roberto”, the company’s clients are in the main talented youngsters from Brazilian clubs’ youth academies. The best-known player that the two former professionals have managed hitherto is the striker Fernandao, who played a key part in Internacional Porto Alegre’s victories in the Copa Libertadores and the FIFA Club World Cup 2006. Fernandao announced his transfer to Qatari club Al-Gharafa in July.