September 22, 2022
The brief from today:
UEFA reveal more long-term plans for Euros
Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, have started to divulge more of what they are planning regarding Euro 2028. They have already told the various nations bidding for hosting rights the number of stadiums they should have on their shortlist, and now other decisions are filtering out. For instance, the approach of Euro 2020, where the tournament was hosted across 11 different countries on the continent, has been shelved. Only joint bids will now be entertained, and even those will have to consist of nations that are close in proximity to each other to reduce distances traveled. There is another change which was being considered specifically for the 2028 edition, and that was an increase in participating countries from 24 to 32. That has now also been dismissed, with the governing body deciding to maintain the status quo. What this now means is that the initial stadium requirements provided to countries compiling their bids, which may have been increased with more teams, will now likely remain as is. Despite the 2028 edition being six years away, UEFA have to promptly disclose as much as possible in order to facilitate the logistics of such a major tournament.
UEFA are working to modify the guidelines for future Euro tournaments
Napoli face legal issues
Serie A side, Napoli, are on the receiving end of a judge’s ruling that will affect their merchandise sales. Following the passing of Napoli legend, Diego Maradona, in 2020, the club renamed their San Paolo stadium to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona as a tribute to their former player. The gestures didn’t stop there, however, as last season Napoli launched a commemorative jersey that had the image of Maradona’s face, as well as a tracksuit and the team bus bearing the Argentine’s likeness. For Napoli to do this, they tracked down Maradona’s image rights to a man named Stefano Ceci, who had a signed contract with the former player before his passing that granted Ceci negotiation privileges. The contract in place was a 50/50 agreement which meant any image rights profits that were made from Ceci’s deals would see Maradona earn 50 percent of the proceeds. The agreement that was struck between Ceci and Napoli for the club to use Maradona’s image, however, was for a paltry €22,500. This was now the amount set to be split despite the club going on to sell €900,000 worth of jerseys. In addition to Ceci’s dubious valuation, another issue was that he didn’t adhere to the clause in the contract, which stated he must consult with Maradona’s family before finalizing any image rights deals. All of this resulted in a lawsuit, but the timing of the court proceedings were far too late to do anything about the revenue Napoli had already accrued from the jerseys last season. The judge ruled in favor of Maradona’s estate and heirs, however, and said Ceci was negligible with his valuation given to Napoli, and that €150,000 of his assets would be seized. In addition to that, Napoli have now also been ordered to cease any use of Maradona’s likeness on all club materials.
The jersey in question (above) that Napoli have been ordered to cease production of going forward