Barcelona seek bumper £50m kit deal as they call on agency to help them replace Qatar Airways as shirt sponsor

Barcelona have engaged Creative Artists Agency to find them a shirt sponsor who are prepared to pay around the record-breaking £52million a year that Manchester United receive from Chevrolet. 

The Catalan giants’ current kit deal with Qatar Airways is worth around £26m a year and runs out this summer. 

A renewed contract of £48m annually was mooted last October but talks broke down. 

Barca's deal with Qatar Airways will come to an end this summer, and the club want to double their money

There is pressure from members for Barcelona to drop the name of Qatar with a demonstration about workers’ conditions there taking place outside the club’s last AGM. 

CAA, whose European sports arm was set up by former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, have a growing commercial business that includes acting for Jose Mourinho and Harry Kane.

Manchester United's deal with Chevrolet is worth £52m, and the Catalan club are looking for a similar amount

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove has caused ructions at the top of English cricket by accusing the game’s powerbrokers of using ECB positions to favour their own counties.

Bransgrove’s allegations were made in an incendiary email sent to county chairmen ahead of Monday’s summit to introduce major changes in domestic Twenty20 and the County Championship. 

Surrey, Somerset and Glamorgan are named as being over-represented on the decision-making committees and accused of using that fact to secure international matches.

ECB president Giles Clarke, a long-term foe of Bransgrove, is considering legal action.

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove accused powerbrokers of using positions to favour their own counties

The Hampshire man claims Surrey were able to agree a long-term staging agreement for The Oval. 

He also claims Glamorgan’s Paul Russell and David Morgan engineered an Ashes Test in Cardiff and that Taunton was given international status, despite its ‘questionable compliance’ with ECB requirements, while Clarke and Andy Nash were ECB directors.

Bransgrove added: ‘These decisions cannot be regarded as “beyond suspicion”. I remain utterly convinced that outcomes have been contrived.’

Bransgrove wanted a motion put forward that no county with board representation could be represented on the key committees. But it’s understood the ECB will not allow it. 

Bransgrove said: ‘I have nothing more to add apart from the wish to improve ECB governance.’

ECB president Giles Clarke, a long-term foe of Bransgrove, is considering legal action, following his email

Everton chief executive Robert Elstone went off Premier League message at a Leaders in Football conference in New York this week, saying clubs could improve the quality of their commercial partners — picking out Newcastle shirt backers Wonga as one of the low-rent sponsors. 

However the Premier League, earning £8.3billion from TV rights over the next three seasons, don’t need a title sponsor by choice.

Everton chief executive Robert Elstone said clubs like Newcastle should look for higher quality sponsors

Marcus Rashford, the new goalscoring sensation in the Premier League, has yet to employ a football agent — with all his off-field activity managed by his family. 

But such is the recent attention that the 18-year-old Manchester United striker is holding a beauty contest with leading middle-men.

Manchester United starlet Marcus Rashford has yet to employ an agent, but that could be set to change soon

Ronny inked in for Roy

The FA are so keen on Cristiano Ronaldo being in the Portugal side who will play England at Wembley on June 2 that his appearance — injury permitting — is part of the contract. 

Ronaldo will help sell tickets and give England match experience against a team who rely on one world beater — like Euro 2016 rivals Wales with Gareth Bale. 

Meanwhile, Turkey were so keen to play against England they have moved their domestic cup final and a round of league fixtures to accommodate the game. Imagine the fuss if England did that.

Cristiano Ronaldo being in the Portugal side who will play England in June 2 is part of the FA's contract

Disgrace FIFA president Sepp Blatter used to fly everywhere by private jet. But his successor Gianni Infantino, on his first foreign engagement, flew from Geneva to Bristol on budget airline easyJet en route to Cardiff for the law-governing IFAB summit.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has ditched the private jet of his predecessor, and is instead flying easyJet

The proposal for football video reviews to be tested in next season’s FA Cup received the full approval of Welsh rugby great Jamie Roberts, who had a meeting at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff where the IFAB assembled.

The Welsh rugby base is the Vale of Glamorgan — or the jail of Glamorgan as Roberts calls it as he’s been there so often. He said St David’s Hotel was ‘too posh for us’.