Former Manchester United midfielder, Ji-Sung Park has become an ambassador of the Club. 

As part of the announcement, Ji-Sung Park will be invited to tread Old Trafford’s hallowed turf once again, with former manager Sir Alex Ferguson before the kick-off at the team’s home fixture against Everton on Sunday 5 October.

Through the role Park will attend various events and functions on behalf of the Club, promoting the work it does within the community and with its partners, sharing anecdotes from his time at Old Trafford.

Park played for United for seven years, from 2005 – 2012, winning an array of accolades, including four Premier League titles, three League Cups, one UEFA Champions League and one FIFA Club World Cup.

He is recognised as the most decorated Asian footballer in history as well as the first Asian player to have won the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Speaking about his appointment Ji-Sung Park commented: “I am looking forward to once again representing United and sharing some of these memories with our global fanbase.”

Manchester United Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold commented: “Ji was a fantastic servant for the Club and I’m delighted that he will is becoming an Ambassador for Manchester United.  He has always been a favourite with our fans both at Old Trafford and around the world and this new role will give him the chance to meet many of these fans and share his stories.

“Ji joins a long list of ex-players who are now working with the Club in various guises; from ambassadorial appearances, media work and in coaching roles at the Aon Training Complex.  It demonstrates the Club’s ability to not only attract some of the best talent in the world, but retain it even after the players have retired.”

Park’s new standing should help satisfy a growing Asian fan base following the departure of midfielder Shinji Kagawa. In 2012, sports agency Kantar suggested United had a global following of 659 million fans. 

Derbyshire county cricket club have confirmed today that Geoff Miller OBE will be the new club President.

The Supervisory Board unanimously supported the nomination of the former Derbyshire Captain and England & Wales Cricket Board National Selector for the position.

Miller, who was born in Chesterfield, played 254 first-class matches for Derbyshire between 1973 and 1990 and was an integral member of the 1981 NatWest Trophy winning side.

Miller’s form in county cricket earned him an international call-up where he claimed 60 wickets and scored 1,213 runs in 34 Tests for England.

He went on to enjoy great success as ECB National Selector, overseeing England’s rise to number one in both the Test and 50-over formats.

Miller said: “I am grateful to Chairman Chris Grant and the Supervisory Board for nominating me and I’m looking forward to my term in office. It is an honour, a privilege and a pleasure to be able to serve the county in this way.”

Geoff Miller succeeds the outgoing President Willie Tucker.

Chairman Chris Grant commenting on the developments: “Willie was the first President to serve his term as part of the new governance structure. We are very grateful for his support in spreading the message across the county about the progress we are making as a Club.

“Geoff is the ideal person to take over the reins at a time when we are implementing our Elite Performance model.

“With his vast experience inside the ECB, he is uniquely placed to offer advice when called upon in our quest to produce a future England player.”

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has revealed that the European soccer governing body would oppose any moves by the English Premier League to stage matches overseas.

Plans for the English top flight to stage additional league matches abroad were dropped in 2008 amid strong opposition from supporters’ groups, European governing body UEFA, and world governing body FIFA.

But reports have emerged this week that the Premier League are considering taking existing games overseas, with Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins claiming that it could become a reality within a year.

UEFA voiced opposition to the proposals in 2008 and when asked what its position was now, Infantino told the Leaders Sport Business Summit in London: “I don’t think it will change, but it will have to be discussed.”

He added: “These kind of ideas and proposals are on the table every now and then, and have to be discussed. It depends on what concretely it looks like, how it will look.

“Today already we have some associations who play, for example, the Super Cup in Asia and so on. It’s part of this wish to export European football, national football.

“We have to just bear in mind that we have structures in place, a pyramid in place – FIFA, the confederations, the national associations, leagues, and so on.

“Whenever these kind of things are discussed, we have to act in a responsible way within the rules that we’ve all agreed together. Let’s see what is the decision of UEFA on this.”

Speaking earlier this week, Jenkins told a Swansea fans’ forum: “I think it is inevitable it is going to happen. There’s definitely going to be a run of games played abroad in 12 months or two years.”

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The entry period for the 2014 Football Business Awards is over and as the judges pour over the submissions, treat entrants await the outcome with anticipation. With such an impressive standard of work going on off the pitch the competition for places on September’s shortlist is unsurprisingly high. For those lucky enough to be in contention for an award at November’s ceremony, buy how do they take the leap from contender to winner, order bringing home a prize?

Perhaps a good starting point is to look at Everton in the Community, whose double success in the ‘Best Club Community Scheme’ category stands as a reference for how to achieve success and build upon it year on year.

Established in 1988, Everton in the Community is the official charity of Everton Football Club, formed in response to the many social and economic challenges facing the region. Aiming to engage local people in positive and inspiring community-based activities, the charity has given hope to people whose futures seemed hopeless. Employing 91 full-time staff, 61 casual staff and 188 volunteers, the charity offers 41 programmes covering a range of social issues including health, employability, anti-social behaviour, crime, education, dementia, poverty, youth engagement and disability. Its involvement in such a diverse repertoire of aid projects caught the judges’ eye both in 2012 and 2013.

‘The charity and its projects have the full support of Everton Football Club within the local community,’ says Denise Barrett-Baxendale, CEO of Everton in the Community.  ‘Everyone from the first team manager and playing squad to the hundreds of volunteers that sign up to help their team week-in-week-out, it’s very much a club effort. 

‘We’re often recognized as one of the leading community schemes due to the quality and reach of our programmes and it is the diversity of the projects on offer that has meant that the charity has been at the forefront of social intervention across Merseyside for over 26 years.’ 

Everton in the Community manages one of the most successful disability sports programmes in the world. With physical activity increasingly seen as a powerful medium in tackling social issues, those driven and passionately promoted from football clubs are especially effective. 

The charity’s double success at the Football Business Awards is quite an achievement. To win once translates into a powerful market badge for victorious organizations, so winning twice sees the effect within the industry amplified twofold. 

‘Being recognised twice by the Football Business Awards has helped to maintain our position as not only one of the Premier League’s leading community schemes but one of the largest, most diverse and most dynamic schemes in world football,’ explains Denise. ‘Prestigious awards such as the FBAs enables Everton in the Community to continue to raise the awareness of their ground-breaking work on both an international and national stage.’

Those wishing to enter the Football Business Awards will now have to wait until 2015, but tables at 2014’s ceremony are now on sale for anyone looking to experience the action. For more information on attending the awards, visit www.footballbusinessawards.com.

Lagardère Unlimited has announced it will combine its European football activities to create a new soccer platform and has appointed Philipp Hasenbein to oversee the business. 

The creation of this platform is another step by Lagardère Unlimited, recipe to strengthen the European football business within the network. The overall responsibility for European football business takes over Philipp Hasenbein addition to his role as Managing Director of SPORT FIVE Germany.

As the sole shareholder of SPORT FIVE Lagardère Unlimited is present in several European countries. In Germany and France SPORT FIVE is the market leader among sports rights agencies in other countries markets, cough the business is growing constantly. By creating a strong pan-European football platform international synergies can be exploited even better and bring in more than 300 marketing and sales experts their experience even better.

As “Head of European Football” Philipp Hasenbein is responsible for the expansion of the European football business within the Lagardère Unlimited network. Philipp Hasenbein has worked for the company since 1995 and since July 2008 became the Managing Director of SPORTFIVE GmbH & Co. KG.

Alain Lemarchand, Head of Lagardère Unlimited Europe and Africa, is excited about the future possibilities: “By creating a pan-European platform, we can drive our football business in Europe. Our key goal of this is to offer our customers even more valuable partnerships and innovative services. I trust Philipp fully to lead this project together with the Lagardère Unlimited teams to success.

Philipp Hasenbein added: “We want to strengthen our leading role in the European football market sustainably. I am convinced that we will grow even stronger with an integrated, high-performance platform and can meet the needs of our partners, rights holders and sponsors better yet at the same time. I look forward to this pioneering role.”