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Paper Talk: Fergie coaches wrestling team, City and PSG face financial scrutiny, Pope’s misbehaving team

News Corp Australia

IN a jam-packed Paper Talk, Fergie returns to coach ... a wrestling team, City and PSG are under scrutiny and the Pope’s not so holy team.

YOU might not be surprised to hear that brainy Harvard University’s wrestling team isn’t very good, but you certainly will be surprised to hear how they’re going about changing that.

The team – who’ve only won four times in 12 matches – have enlisted the help of a new lecturer … one Sir Alex Ferguson, to turn their fortunes around.

The Manchester United legend will take on a mentoring role after accepting a job at Harvard University in the US.

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Wrestling coach Jay Weiss has called on the Scot to provide the winning mentality his football team was so famous for.

“It would be a huge honour to have him come and teach us,” Weiss said.

“(He’s got) so much experience and so much to teach the wrestling team.

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“Winning is winning and it’s all about getting people to do something great.”

We wonder how the underperforming grapplers will react to Fergie’s famous hairdryer treatment.

NEVER mind David Beckham, Wayne Rooney or Orlando Engelaar, Munir El Haddadi struck a wonder goal from the halfway line as Barcelona were crowned European Under 19 champions after beating Benfica 3-0 in the UEFA Youth League final in Nyon.

El Haddadi saved the best to last, adding to his tally in the 87th minute with a breathtaking effort from the halfway line to seal victory in style.

The 18-year-old Spaniard spotted Graca off his line in the distance and showed great vision to strike decisively over the back-pedalling goalkeeper’s head.

Watch it at the top of this page.

MEGA-BUCKS Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain lead the list of European clubs who will learn this week whether they have committed serious breaches of UEFA’s financial fair play rule.

The Club Financial Control Body’s (CFCB) investigatory chamber, headed by former Belgium prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, will meet this week to consider the spending of 76 European clubs.

Details of the findings will be revealed on May 5, with team’s found guilty of breaches to be referred to the CFCB’s adjudicatory panel for a final verdict.

Ramifications for those found guilty include being barred from European competition.

Qatari-owned PSG is believed to be most at risk, and the Ligue 1 club will have to convince UEFA its deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority is aboveboard.

FROM goalkeeper to geek - Atletico Madrid assistant coach German Burgos provided a glimpse into the future on Sunday when he became the first man in football to wear a Google Glass headset.

The specs allowed Burgos instant access to running statistics of La Liga leaders Atletico and rivals Getafe. Thanks to internet streaming, the former Argentina goalkeeper was able to keep high-tech tabs on all the players and instantly inform manager Diego Simeone.

Most managers use laptops these days, coupled with detailed statistics and video playback. Google Glass could be the next step forward.

Software for the glasses was developed by La Liga, who said in a statement: “The product allows the analysis of games in real time and the extraction of data from each game. Clubs will have all the information about their own game and of the sides they face throughout the season.”

FOOTBALL in Iran is quite different to what we’re used to.

Take for example these crazy scenes in an Azadegan League match between Nassaji Mazandaran and Shahrdari Yasuj.

We’ll be honest, we don’t really know the protagonist’s and antagonist’s names, but a Nassaji Mazandaran striker rounds the keeper, is about to score into an empty net before a Shahrdari Yasuj substitute runs onto the field and heads the shot over the crossbar.

The player was sent off and an indirect free kick was awarded. Unfortunately it was blocked, but proving crime doesn’t pay, Nassaji Mazandaran went on to complete a 2-0 win.

YESTERDAY’S Paper Talk reported on the ugly Serie A love triangle between Maxi Lopez and Mauro Icardi.

Lopez and Icardi were friends before Icardi hooked up with Lopez’s missus after the two broke up. A frosty non-handshake on the field occurred, and now an amazing photo has emerged of Lopez signing an autograph for a 12-year-old Icardi nine years ago.

If only he knew what would happen….

Sampdoria striker Maxi Lopez signing an autograph for Mauro Icardi. 9 years on, Icardi now 21, steals Maxi's wife. pic.twitter.com/5fbiIo3Y0r

INTER Milan director Marco Fassone has confirmed the Italian club is interested in signing Chelsea striker Fernando Torres.

With whispers growing louder that Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa will leave for Stamford Bridge next season, Spaniard Torres is widely expected to leave the west London club.

The 30-year-old Spaniard has never fully settled at Chelsea since joining from Liverpool for huge money and Inter could be just the tonic to reignite his career.

“He is one of the names that interest us,” Fassone told Radio Deejay.

“Our President Erick Thohir admitted as much in recent days.

“You will discover in due course who the player is that we will focus on.”

THE club nicknamed ‘The Saint Of The South’ didn’t exactly live up to their name by having TWO players sent off in their opening league match.

Papa Francisco, a new Argentinian side named after Pope Francis and meant to promote non-violence played out a 2-2 draw with Trefules in which, ironically, two players were sent off from each side.

Pope Francis is an avid football fan and a supporter of Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo, although he has no official connection to the Papa Francisco club.

The Papa Francisco team was founded by Jorge Ramirez, an admirer of the pope. It has 47 members and was set up shortly after the archbishop of the city, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was named pope.

“Our motto is no hooligans, no violence and no insults,” said Ramirez, the club president.

Apparently not.

ANDREA Pirlo – everyone’s favourite wine-sipping, Panenka penalty-taking Italian midfielder – has written an autobiography, ‘I Think Therefore I Play’.

The book will be released in English on Thursday, and the Juventus and Azzurri star touches on a whole host of issues, including retirement, that penalty against England in Euro 2012 and Mario Balotelli.

But perhaps most interesting is his reaction to AC Milan’s heartbreaking Champions League collapse against Liverpool in 2005, where the Italians lost the final, despite leading 3-0 in Turkey.

“I’ll never fully shake that sense of absolute impotence when destiny is at work. The feeling will cling to my feet forever, trying to pull me down,” he writes.

“There are always lessons to be found in the darkest moments. It’s a moral obligation to dig deep and find that little glimmer of hope or pearl of wisdom.

“You might hit upon an elegant phrase that stays with you and makes the journey that little bit less bitter. I’ve tried with Istanbul and haven’t managed to get beyond these words: for f***’s sake.”

SOME high-profile Miami businessmen have released a newspaper advertisement protesting against David Beckham’s plans for a football stadium in Miami, saying it threatens the city’s plans to capitalise on the expansion of the Panama Canal.

“We cannot jeopardise well-paying jobs, like crane operators, longshore workers, and mechanics, for low-paying stadium jobs, such as concession sales,” the Miami Seaport Alliance said in a full-page ad that ran in the Miami Herald.

Former England and LA Galaxy star Beckham in March unveiled plans for a 25,000-seat waterfront stadium on the island port with sweeping views of downtown Miami.

DANNY Welbeck, Tom Cleverley and Ashley Young have been fined and warned over their future conduct after they enjoyed a night out just hours after Manchester United’s quarter-final exit from the Champions League.

The England internationals were photographed in Manchester city centre partying in the early hours of Friday morning after returning from Munich on Thursday.

Manager David Moyes is understood to have called the three in for talks yesterday at United’s Carrington HQ before making them do extra training away from the rest of the first-team squad. All three players have been fined.

SWANSEA’S preparations for Sunday’s home defeat by Chelsea were undermined by an amazing training-ground fight.

The extraordinary incident involved six players from the first-team squad and took place during a full-scale practice match last Wednesday.

Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins was left stunned after witnessing the fierce clashes between players.

Although he has not taken disciplinary action against those involved, Jenkins is becoming increasingly alarmed about the friction in the Swansea dressing room.

According to training-ground sources, there were three incidents during the high-tempo session organised by interim manager Garry Monk. It is understood players had to be separated after tempers flared and tackles got out of hand.

PETR Cech believes a lack of title experience among Liverpool’s squad may yet cause Brendan Rodgers’s side to collapse in the home straight.

The Chelsea goalkeeper, who says Jose Mourinho’s men must win all their remaining games to pip Liverpool and Manchester City to the title, said: “Nobody expected anything from Liverpool this season and they’re in contention — it’s why they’ve been able to play without pressure so far.

“But let’s see how they will cope when it comes to the last hurdle. They will have to jump over it. They have been doing remarkably well, but we are still around.’ Cech says Chelsea need to raise its own game after making hard work of their 1-0 win over Swansea at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday.