The big clubs in Manchester have very different business models
Football business will again be in focus as the Soccerex European forum makes its second Manchester appearance.
The two-day event, starting on Wednesday, includes big name speakers from clubs, leagues, brands, sponsors, federations and others.
The topics being examined include hosting Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, Uefa’s new financial fair-play rules, and the German football model.
Firms will also be displaying football-related products and services.
Football’s finances and business structures continue to be in the spotlight.
For example, at present Plymouth Argyle is struggling to stay in existence, QPR is up for sale, and MPs have been scrutinising the operations of top clubs, including Manchester United.
Indeed, only last week United’s parent company Red Football Joint Venture announced a loss of £109m in 2010.
Meanwhile, neighbours and rivals Manchester City have forced their way towards the top end of the table, thanks largely to player acquisitions funded by owners the Abu Dhabi United Group.
In the recent transfer window City completed the £27m signing of Bosnian international striker Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg, and such spending has led to fears that the club may be inflating the transfer system.
These issues and others like them will be examined in series of sessions and seminars.
Among the delegates are the chief of Poland’s Euro 2012 hosting plans, Marcin Herra, Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre, Real Madrid marketing manager Begona Sanz, and Bayern Munich sporting director Christian Nerlinger.
Plymouth Argyle have hit financial difficulties this season
Other clubs in attendance will include Arsenal, Manchester United, Ajax and Chelsea.
Last year’s event, which – as this year – was hosted at Manchester Central Convention Complex – was attended by 1,200 people from the football industry.
Duncan Revie, chief executive of Soccerex, says the event brings together people from across the industry.
“It is a myriad of people, ranging from the professional clubs and major sports brands and sponsors to bankers and lawyers and even companies that make plastic seats or play pitches.
“People keep using it as a place to meet and do business. They may not sign the contract there and then but they will start the negotiations and have the initial meeting in Manchester and take it from there.”
Among the seminars, topics to be covered include financial prudence, league and club strategies, sponsorship, the fan experience, broadcasting, new media, naming rights, and venue management.
The European Professional Leagues (EPFL) organisation will also be hosting a behind-closed-doors meeting around Soccerex.
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Superintendent Amanda Cooke said a call was made warning of a suspect device
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A security alert in the Oldpark area of north Belfast is expected to continue into Wednesday.
Police said the alert followed a claim that a device had been abandoned in the area. It is causing major disruption.
Parts of the Oldpark Road and Hillview Road have been closed. Up to 200 homes are being evacuated, with facilities provided at Ardoyne Community Centre.
Police said nothing suspicious had been found at this stage.
BBC NI reporter Kevin Sharkey said there was a “major security operation” in place.
He said a call had been logged with the Samaritans on Monday night saying a device was left in the area.
“Police are trying to find out if that is the case,” he added.
“Police are being very cautious, their big fear is that if they move too quickly there could be a trap of some kind.
“They have indicated that it will be into tomorrow before they make major progress.”
The Oldpark Road has been closed between Manor Street and Oldpark Avenue.
Rosapenna Street is closed from the Roseleigh Street junction.
Police said they were “mindful of the disruption” the alert was causing to people.
“Police must protect the community and every decision we take is for the welfare of the community – however the disruption is caused by those who make these claims and cause such distress in our community,” a PSNI spokesperson said.
The alert follows reports of a shooting incident in the Oldpark area on Monday night.
A number of shots were heard at Glenview Street off the Oldpark Road.
Bullet casings were found at the scene near the Oldpark Road, but no injuries have been reported.
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President Rousseff and former President have led tributes to Mr Alencar
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Brazil’s former Vice-President, Jose Alencar, has died at the age of 79 after a long battle with cancer.
Mr Alencar served eight years as deputy to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left office at the end of last year.
Lula and his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, are cutting short a visit to Portugal to attend his funeral.
Jose Alencar rose from humble origins to become a multi-millionaire businessman before entering politics.
President Rousseff spoke of her “great sadness” at the news of his death.
“It was an honour to have lived and worked with him,” she said.
Lula fought back tears as he paid tribute to his former deputy, calling him “a man of exceptional dimensions”.
“Ours was a relationship of brothers and comrades,” he said.
Mr Alencar had fought abdominal cancer since 1997, undergoing repeated surgery in Brazil and US.
Born in 1931 in the town of Itamuri in Minas Gerais state as the 11th of 15 children, Mr Alencar worked his way up from poverty to establish a multi-million dollar textile business.
He was elected to the Brazilian senate in 1998.
In 2002 Lula da Silva chose him as his running mate for the presidency in an attempt to win the support of business leaders, who were worried about Lula’s left-wing background.
Mr Alencar served two terms as vice-president to Lula, who presided over sustained economic growth and left office in January 2011 as the most popular president in Brazilian history.
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Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara have been making rapid advances
Ivorian incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has appealed for an immediate ceasefire after advances by forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara.
A spokesman for Mr Gbagbo said the army had adopted a strategy of tactical withdrawal but warned it could use its “legitimate right of defence”.
In the town of Doekoue, up to 30,000 people took refuge in a church compound to escape the fighting.
Mr Gbagbo refuses to stand down despite the UN saying he lost November’s poll.
Some one million people have fled the violence – mostly in Abidjan – and at least 462 people have been killed since December, according to the UN.
“We call for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of talks under the mediation of the African Union high representative. Failing which, we will use our legitimate right of defence,” Ahoua Don Mello, Mr Gbagbo’s spokesman, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
“We have adopted a strategy of tactical withdrawal. We hope that dialogue will open very shortly. It is useless to head into conflict and increase the number of victims.”
Mr Don Mello said Mr Gbagbo’s camp had received an invitation from the African Union to talks in Addis Ababa on 4-6 April, and saw “no reason to refuse an occasion for dialogue.”
Ivory Coast: Battle for power
462 killed, one million fled since disputed election9,000 UN peacekeepers monitor 2003 ceasefireWorld’s largest cocoa producerOnce was haven of peace and prosperity in West AfricaAlassane Ouattara recognised as president-electInternational sanctions imposed to force Laurent Gbagbo to goHarding blog: Will the world prevent war?
He also dismissed accusations by the UN that pro-Gbagbo forces had opened fire on civilians on Monday, killing at least 10 and burning a man to death in Abidjan.
Instead, he accused the UN mission – which has a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in the country – of “partisan behaviour”.
Fighters loyal to Mr Ouattara have been gaining ground in two offensives from their northern bases.
In the west, pro-Ouattara forces are reported to have taken the major town of Daloa town of Duekoue, while in the east, the forces say they have captured the town of Bondoukou.
Daloa is the capital of Ivory Coast’s Centre-West region. It is the biggest town to be attacked so far, and opens the way to the cocoa region, the capital Yamoussoukro, and the cocoa-exporting port of San Pedro.
Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer.
Earlier, a missionary told the BBC that some 30,000 people were trapped in the compound of a Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue, in western Ivory Coast.
He said many of those who had sought refuge at the mission were migrants from other West African countries who had been working in the surrounding cocoa plantations.
A UN spokesman told the BBC that “robust patrols” had been deployed to protect the church and those inside.
The pro-Ouattara forces have controlled the north of the country since a 2002 civil war. Pro-Gbagbo troops have lost every battle against them since last November’s election, the BBC’s John James reports from Ivory Coast.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rebel fighters said pro-Gaddafi forces had used heavy weaponry to check their advance on Sirte
Pro-government forces have pushed rebels back from the key Libyan town of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace.
The renewed fighting came as delegates from dozens of countries were gathering in London for a conference on the future of Libya.
US President Obama earlier defended the first military intervention of his presidency, insisting that US involvement would be limited.
But he also said overthrowing Col Gaddafi by force would be a mistake.
Anti-Gaddafi forces had made rapid progress westwards from their stronghold in Benghazi in recent days – greatly aided by international air strikes – seizing a number of coastal communities and important oil installations, including Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad.
But on Tuesday rebel fighters said pro-Gaddafi forces had used heavy weaponry to check their advance, forcing them to retreat from the town of Nawfaliyah, 125km (75 miles) from Sirte.
President Barack Obama: ”Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake”
A Pentagon spokesman in Washington, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, said that because the Libyan rebels were not well organised, any military gains they made would be tenuous.
He said the rebels were clearly benefiting from actions of the US, which has started using heavily-armed low-flying aircraft against government forces.
Meanwhile, ships from the US Sixth Fleet attacked three Libyan ships that had been firing indiscriminately at merchant ships in the port of Misrata, west of Sirte.
One of the vessels was destroyed and a second beached, while the third was abandoned, US Navy officials were quoted as saying by Reuters.
In eastern Libya, rebel radio has been urging more people in the west of the country to join the anti-Gaddafi uprising.
Nato has denied that its air strikes are meant to provide cover for a rebel advance.
Analysis
Critics on the left and right in the US are asking why their country is involved in Libya.
President Obama answered them in this major address, his first speech on Libya since action started some 10 days ago.
He said he had ordered military intervention to enforce the UN resolution because if the coalition had waited one more day, there could have been a massacre in Benghazi that would have stained the conscience of the world, eclipsed the dawning democratic impulses across the region and crippled the credibility of the UN.
He said he had refused to wait for images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.
But the president also addressed the limits of action: he said there was no question that the world would be better off with Gaddafi out of power but to broaden military aims to regime change would splinter the coalition and mean US troops on the ground.
Read Mark’s thoughts in full Commentators question Obama’s speech
But while Nato insists it is impartial in the conflict, Russia has renewed its expressions of concern, saying intervention in an internal civil war is not sanctioned by UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Ahead of Tuesday’s conference, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he wanted Col Gaddafi to leave power and face trial at the International Criminal Court.
Some 40 delegations – from the coalition, the UN, Nato, the African Union and Arab League, but not the Libyan government – will be represented in London. Rebel officials have been invited for talks on the meeting’s sidelines, although not to the conference itself.
In a letter to those attending the conference, Col Gaddafi called for an end to the “barbaric offensive” on his country.
In his first televised address on the Libyan intervention, Mr Obama said that having led the initial campaign – which had saved “countless lives” – the US would hand over to Nato allies on Wednesday.
“We have stopped Gaddafi’s deadly advance,” he said at the National Defense University in Washington DC.
But the lead in enforcing the no-fly zone and protecting civilians on the ground would now move to the Americans’ allies, he added.
“We must always measure our interests against the need for action,” the president continued. “But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right.”
Earlier, in a video conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Mr Obama had agreed that Col Gaddafi “had lost any legitimacy to rule and should leave power, and that the Libyan people should have the political space to determine their own future”, the White House said.
Khaled Kaim: “The solution is for all parties to be involved in peace-making”
An Italian proposal to end the crisis includes offering Col Gaddafi an escape route from Libya, ensuring a quick ceasefire and facilitating dialogue between rebels and tribal leaders.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he had discussed the proposals with Germany and France.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim, meanwhile, has called on those attending Tuesday’s conference in London to act as “peacemakers, not warmongers”.
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
