Fans blast Newcastle stadium name-change

November 5, 2009

Newcastle fans reacted with scorn Thursday after it emerged that the club’s St. James’ Park stadium is to be rebranded with the name of a dotcom sponsor.

The Magpies’ home is to be renamed as sportsdirect.com@St James’ Park until the end of this season, to plug the sportswear firm of controversial club owner Mike Ashley.

Some 16,000 people have signed an online petition protesting at the name change, while local MP David Clelland has tabled a parliamentary motion urging the club’s owners to reconsider.

“The idea of turning the history of St James’ Park into something that resembles an email address absolutely beggars belief,” said Mark Jensen, editor of The Mag fanzine, which described the move as “cheap and nasty.”

Club managing director Derek Llambias admitted the name change had been badly handled.

“We could have worded it better,” he told BBC radio, while defending the decision which could see the stadium changed to another name if an outside sponsor is found.

“If it brings in a good chunk of money to the club that goes straight to the team, it’s a revenue that we should look at,” he said.

“Newcastle United’s history is just incredible … people have to look at maximising their revenues. That’s one part of a stadium that you can use that is under-utilised.”

NEWCASTLE (AFP)

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Jo set to return to City after Everton loan

May 23, 2009

LIVERPOOL (AFP) – Brazil striker Jo will return to Manchester City at the end of the season after Everton admitted they cannot afford to sign him on a permanent basis.

City paid 18 million pounds to sign Jo from CSKA Moscow last year but he struggled to make an impact at Eastlands and was loaned out to Everton in January.

He made a better impression with David Moyes’ team and scored five goals in 13 games to lift the Toffees into fifth place in the Premier League with one game to go.

However, Moyes knows City will expect to recoup a large chunk of the fee they paid for Jo if they are to let him go, and that puts him out of Everton’s price range.

“I don’t see where we could even come close to getting the money they spent on him,” Moyes told Everton’s official website. “But a loan has not been put to us or spoken about at all yet.

“It’s something that, at the moment, we’ve not had any indication that they would have interest in. Obviously that means he will go back to Manchester City.”