The Parque São Jorge headquarters are awash with signs that the partnership between shadowy investment group MSI (Media Sports International; fronted by the shady Kia Joorabchian) and Brazil’s second most supported club, Corinthians, may be about to come to an end.
Although the agreement signed at the end of 2004 was supposed to last ten years, it does seem probable that the expiry date was set too optimistically and the deal is starting to go rotten after only two years of an increasingly confrontational relationship.
Octogenarian President Alberto Dualib and MSI head honcho Kia Joorabchian have been at loggerheads ever since the Iranian-born British-Canadian wheeler-dealer had the nerve to go against the local grain and deny Dualib’s niece a juicy commission for having a marginal role in the signing of the Samsung sponsorship deal.
Dualib has been back and forth to London like a prehistoric yo-yo attempting to convince alleged backer Boris Berezovski (wanted in Russia on corruption charges) to fire the basset-eyed exec. It all seemed to no avail, but Kia has now been absent from Brazil for three months.
“We really don’t know if it [the partnership] still exists”, explained the President who’s spent the last six months trying to swap the figurehead. “Kia hasn’t been around for some time an we’ll just have to see what their intentions are”, he added.
Dualib, although it seems ridiculous, was actually the motor behind the partnership, although the ageing exec took increasing exception to the deal when he found out that the small print meant that he’d signed over effective control of the football department.
His original idea was to strengthen his grip on a club that he’s presided over with an iron grip by sweeping aside potential pretenders to the throne with a project so ambitious that it couldn’t but guarantee his re-election for yet another monolithic term.
The partnership may have dynamited moves to dethrone Dualib, but it was a double-edged weapon that began to slice away at his own administration as voices of dissent rose and resignations started hitting his desk.
Following the World Cup, Corinthians found themselves sunk at the bottom of the Brazilian League despite a star-studded cast and Dualib took advantage to announce that was going to take back control of the football department; getting rid of Geninho and hiring hard-line nationalist Emerson Leão against the wishes of a Kia who’s always shown a fondness for Argentineans.
Leão, since arriving, has used a scathing irony talking about MSI, preferring to cite Dualib as the real power and the man he answers to. The results were immediate: Carlos Tevez going AWOL after just two matches under the new Coach’s command and more or less demanding an immediate transfer.
Tevez has vacated his luxury Tatuapé penthouse ($10,000 a month) and according to the building supervisor moved almost everything out of the São Paulo residence and back to Buenos Aires on Saturday. To add more wood to the fire, Kia left a goodbye note that Leão forbid to be read out before the Botafogo match.
Corinthians seem to be recovering in football terms, although it remains to be seen if the end of the partnership means the end of the recovery. Leão complained loudly at Palmeiras about the lack of good signings undermining his work – what remains to be seen is if the end of the partnership really is nigh and if there is life after Kia and/or Berezovski.
http://www.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?contenutoId=115309
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Send Masch and Carlitos to Old Trafford. :thumbsup:
Although the agreement signed at the end of 2004 was supposed to last ten years, it does seem probable that the expiry date was set too optimistically and the deal is starting to go rotten after only two years of an increasingly confrontational relationship.
Octogenarian President Alberto Dualib and MSI head honcho Kia Joorabchian have been at loggerheads ever since the Iranian-born British-Canadian wheeler-dealer had the nerve to go against the local grain and deny Dualib’s niece a juicy commission for having a marginal role in the signing of the Samsung sponsorship deal.
Dualib has been back and forth to London like a prehistoric yo-yo attempting to convince alleged backer Boris Berezovski (wanted in Russia on corruption charges) to fire the basset-eyed exec. It all seemed to no avail, but Kia has now been absent from Brazil for three months.
“We really don’t know if it [the partnership] still exists”, explained the President who’s spent the last six months trying to swap the figurehead. “Kia hasn’t been around for some time an we’ll just have to see what their intentions are”, he added.
Dualib, although it seems ridiculous, was actually the motor behind the partnership, although the ageing exec took increasing exception to the deal when he found out that the small print meant that he’d signed over effective control of the football department.
His original idea was to strengthen his grip on a club that he’s presided over with an iron grip by sweeping aside potential pretenders to the throne with a project so ambitious that it couldn’t but guarantee his re-election for yet another monolithic term.
The partnership may have dynamited moves to dethrone Dualib, but it was a double-edged weapon that began to slice away at his own administration as voices of dissent rose and resignations started hitting his desk.
Following the World Cup, Corinthians found themselves sunk at the bottom of the Brazilian League despite a star-studded cast and Dualib took advantage to announce that was going to take back control of the football department; getting rid of Geninho and hiring hard-line nationalist Emerson Leão against the wishes of a Kia who’s always shown a fondness for Argentineans.
Leão, since arriving, has used a scathing irony talking about MSI, preferring to cite Dualib as the real power and the man he answers to. The results were immediate: Carlos Tevez going AWOL after just two matches under the new Coach’s command and more or less demanding an immediate transfer.
Tevez has vacated his luxury Tatuapé penthouse ($10,000 a month) and according to the building supervisor moved almost everything out of the São Paulo residence and back to Buenos Aires on Saturday. To add more wood to the fire, Kia left a goodbye note that Leão forbid to be read out before the Botafogo match.
Corinthians seem to be recovering in football terms, although it remains to be seen if the end of the partnership means the end of the recovery. Leão complained loudly at Palmeiras about the lack of good signings undermining his work – what remains to be seen is if the end of the partnership really is nigh and if there is life after Kia and/or Berezovski.
http://www.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?contenutoId=115309
--------------
Send Masch and Carlitos to Old Trafford. :thumbsup:
p
