Beckham set to return to America as owner of new MLS franchise in Miami

David Beckham is in the final round of negotiations with backers for his return to Major League Soccer as the owner of a new franchise in Miami.

The former England captain had a clause in his original contract with LA Galaxy allowing him to buy an MLS club with a 25 per cent discount and has almost settled on Florida, where the MLS are keen to expand. He is expected to announce progress before Christmas once his co-investors are in place.

These could include Bolivia-born billionaire Marcelo Claure, who tried unsuccessfully to launch an MLS franchise in Florida in 2009 and joined Beckham in looking at potential stadiums in the Miami area last June.

Making his move: David Beckham (left) is in negotiations to return to America as owner of a franchise in Miami

Steve Ross, owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, may also get involved, while another multi-millionaire certain to be part of the consortium is Beckham’s business partner Simon Fuller. The most likely home for the team is Florida International University’s stadium in Miami.

Meanwhile, the next team joining the MLS in 2015 is the Abu Dhabi-owned New York City, with Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano currently in charge of both clubs. NYC’s entry fee was around $100m (£62m), so Beckham’s discount, as well as his world-famous name, will be attractive to potential backers.

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Sky Sports, who set up a unit codenamed Project Purple aimed at trashing the launch of BT Sport, have subsequently called off the dogs because their rivals currently don’t possess enough Premier League content to threaten them. But now there’s a new company-wide initiative called Project Gold to keep Sky in the ascendancy.

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MCC have had to pay around £30,000 to stage a special general meeting described by Lord’s as a ‘total distraction and a costly one’. The October 17 SGM was called by 180 rebels opposing MCC’s staged rebuilding plan even though they have no chance of halting the construction process. The ‘requisitionists’ are so desperate they have included former England captain David Gower among their signatures, despite him publicly declaring that he has changed sides.



Rebuilding: The staged rebuilding plan at Lord's will go ahead despite opposition from a rebel group

The chaotic nature of the Amateur Boxing Association of England is underlined by a members’ EGM on Saturday that follows chairman Richard Caborn’s decision to disband the board. The former Minister for Sport is facing a vote of no-confidence despite his announcement at the first meeting of his revamped board that he will step down this Friday. But his opponents do not recognise the authority of the new directors and fear Caborn might soon return. Caborn says of the dispute: ‘Modernisation upsets people.’

Wiggins cash wrangle

Sir Bradley Wiggins, who has had a cycling year to forget, has problems to address off the bike as well. His management agents MTC, whom Wiggins is in the process of leaving, have lodged a court claim for a share of alleged earnings from the deals done for him, including his Team Sky contract and Fred Perry clothing deal.

It is understood Wiggins is set to join Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment, who were first linked with him after his stellar 2012. MTC, who have represented Wiggins for eight years, would make no comment because of the legal case.

Battle: Sir Bradley Wiggins is set to leave his agent and join Simon Fuller¿s XIX Entertainment

The treatment of the media at Nottingham Forest has seen the press banished to a classroom in an outbuilding across the car park at the City Ground. Club insiders report the former press room was refurbished in the summer and turned into a hospitality lounge used by family and friends of manager Billy Davies, as his office is too small to cater for them. Forest refused to comment.

FIFA’s football committee, whose dealings with clubs give it an important voice in the Qatar 2022 re-scheduling fiasco, meets in Zurich tomorrow without its English representative. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, who is the loudest opponent of a winter World Cup, is in India visiting the Premier League’s rights partners.



