November 10, 2022
The brief from today:
Marseille arrange new sponsor
Ligue 1 side, Marseille, have secured a new sponsorship deal for the first team’s jersey. It was previously reported that the team’s latest sponsor as of this season, Cazoo, was going through financial difficulties, and as a result wouldn’t be able to honor the contract. Cazoo, a British online car retailer, had already conducted massive layoffs at their various European locations, which was followed by a decision to shut down their European operations earlier this year. Their desire to cut back and focus solely on the British market presaged the collapse of various jersey sponsorships they had across the continent with Marseille being one example. The French side have now moved to rectify the matter by securing a new deal with shipping company: CMA CGM. The Marseille based shipping company is ranked third largest in the world when it comes to sea freight, and this should help ensure some financial stability as far as the club is concerned. The deal agreed between the two Marseille based entities is a two-year contract, which will see CMA CGM emblazoned on the club shirt beginning in the 2023/24 season.
Marseille will be parting ways with jersey sponsor Cazoo
Germany World Cup squad announced
Germany joined a host of teams over the past two days in announcing their final squad for the World Cup. With the tournament set to commence in 10 days, German coach, Hansi Flick, released his list of selected players today, and there was a return for a former hero. The scorer of Germany’s World Cup winning goal in the 2014 final, Mario Gotze, has been included in the squad for Qatar after five years out of the national team setup. Gotze returned to the Bundesliga last summer after two seasons in Holland, and his form for Eintracht Frankfurt was enough to capture Flick’s attention. The 30-year-old will be one of the senior players this time around, and will be looked upon by the coaching staff to provide some much needed experience. While Gotze will be feeling fortunate, the same can’t be said for his former Dortmund teammate, Marco Reus. The Dortmund captain has failed to recover in time from an injury, and unfortunately for him this continues an awful streak of missing major international tournaments. Reus also missed the World Cup winning campaign in 2014 after sustaining a knee injury in Germany’s final warm up match before the tournament. It was more of the same for him with the Euros in 2016 and 2020, and he will now have to watch Germany from home once again as the team heads to Qatar.
Former Dortmund teammates, Götze (left) and Reus (right), have had contrasting fortunes with Germany