Sports
Indonesian Consortium Buys Inter-Milan
Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti has signed a deal to sell a 70% stake in the Serie A club to a group led by Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir.
Thohir, part owner of Major League Soccer club DC United and basketball’s Philadelphia 76ers, heads the three-person consortium.
“The new partners’ enthusiasm and pragmatism are certainly a guarantee for the future,” said Moratti.
Thohir added: “Today is a truly special day in my life.”
Inter Milan broke the transfer world record in 1999 when they paid £32m for Lazio striker Christian Vieri. The Vatican called the size of the fee “disgusting”.
A club statement confirmed a binding agreement has been signed to make International Sports Capital (ISC), a company indirectly owned by Indonesian businessmen Thohir, Rosan Roeslani and Handy Soetedjo, the controlling shareholder of Inter.
Moratti, who will retain a seat on the board, became Inter president in 1995 and has overseen five Serie A titles, one Champions League and a Uefa Cup.
His father Angelo Moratti was in charge of the club in the 1960s when Inter won the European Cup twice in successive years.
Inter, a loss-making club with debts of about 300 million euros (£254m), are the only Italian team never to have been relegated throughout their 105-year-long history.
“I think Inter history is going to be enriched by a new season thanks to our new international partners who, I am sure, will contribute to a continued string of successes,” said Moratti.
“My family and I will continue to live this marvellous story together with Erick, Rosan and Handy granting our unchanged devotion and fondness that bond us to the club and to the Inter supporters”.
Thohir said: “I am honoured that Mr Moratti has entrusted me with the responsibility to lead Inter into the next chapter, and I am excited to have him continue in the future as my partner.
“I am an entrepreneur, but first of all I am a supporter and a sports lover. I cannot wait to put our passion and international experience at the service of this fantastic club and its supporters.”
Inter are fourth in Serie A under coach Walter Mazzarri. They finished ninth last season with Marco Stramaccioni at the helm and failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in 15 years.
Super Eagles technical crew.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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