The week in football: Public money, social change, the week's best ambush plus a 'two-bob servant of Satan'
Appointment of the week
Greg Dyke: hired by the FA to rebuild their fractured relationship with Fifa's top executives - three years after he gave his view on the football family: "Football is the only business where you can be a crook, everyone knows you're a crook, and you can carry on working."
• Dyke's first test: winning formal ratification as FA chairman from the 118 members of the FA Council. In 1998 he publicly ruled out taking the FA job for one key reason: "I can't think of a worse job, the way the FA is structured … If ever there was an organisation where lots of men in blue blazers needed to fall on their swords …"
Other news
Theme of the week: football's relationship with public money:
• Club of the week: AEK Athens, facing action over £145m in unpaid taxes, with arrest warrants issued for "all AEK presidents from 2004 to 2012".
• Deal of the week: West Ham's £15m up-front contribution to the £150m cost of converting the Olympic Stadium – £2m less than it would cost them to sign Andy Carroll.
• Result of the week: Fifa's £58m tax-free profit for 2012 – taking their reserve fund to more than £905m. Fifa say the positive financial result allowed "key management personnel" to share £22m in wages.
Meanwhile
Last week's other headlines from Zurich:
1) Diversity news: Alexandra Wrage, a member of Fifa's ethics reform group, on her experience of the organisation's desire to modernise: "I was told very directly that a woman applying for one of the two top jobs on the ethics commission is not acceptable."
2) Quote of the week: Sepp, discussing the nature of democracy when asked about the number of senior football family figures who win their elections unopposed. "Perhaps an election should have different candidates … [but] I think it is also a question of stability – and of the personality of whoever heads the organisation."
Outs and ins
Last week's manager news:
• Brazil, 20 March: Vasco director René Simões addressing growing public pressure on coach Gaúcho. "Let's just be calm and relaxed about this. You need to allow time for a job to be done well, so let's be cool." 21 March: Sacks him.
• Romania: Sportul appointing a new manager after players protested about a "lack of direction". Squad member Daniel Novac told reporters about Ionut Voicu's arrival: "When we asked him what we should do, he said 'Keep doing what you've been doing.' We told him we've been doing nothing. 'Well, keep doing that.'"
Social change update
£37m: Amount Barclays have put into their grassroots sport scheme to "create social change" since 2004. £39m: Amount they handed to nine senior staff last week in shares.
Voice of calm
Helping address ethnic tensions ahead of last Friday's Croatia v Serbia game: Dinamo Zagreb owner Zdravko Mamic – paying tribute to Croatia's sports minister, an ethnic Serb: "Jovanovic is an insult to the Croatian brain. When he looks at you, blood squirts from his eyes. Looking at his smile, one can only see fangs ready for slaughter."
• The Croatian crowd's view on ethnic tolerance, as chanted during the game: "Kill, kill, kill a Serb."
Fair play: best crusader
Chechen president, warlord and ex-Terek Grozny owner Ramzan Kadyrov – fined £4,200 for calling a referee who ran Terek's game against Rubin Kazan a "biased donkey" with no sense of fair play.
Fastest discipline
Italy: Vibonese's Franco Da Dalt, sent off for a second yellow card, then ambushed as he walked into the players' tunnel by the opposition manager. Local media described how Cosenza manager Gianluca Gagliardi "lurked" in the tunnel after his own earlier dismissal, then "pounced on Da Dalt with a slap. It led to a brawl with stewards."
Apology of the week
Qatar: Al Gharafa's Nene, issuing a statement after footage of him smacking an Al Arabi player went viral. "I apologise to both clubs, to the public, to all who I shocked with my deeply uncharacteristic act. I was not in a good mood."
Gigi's week
Romania: Fringe politician Anca Carcu, reacting to Gigi Becali calling her a "two-bob servant of Satan" after she offered to "show the Steaua boys my boobs if they win in Europe". Carcu: "He called me all sorts on live television, so I'll sue him. It's not about publicity. I just want respect."
Plus: love news
Argentina: Model Vitto Saravia says her time in football has been a "source of great pride". "I've had three footballer boyfriends, but I've never taken advantage. I didn't get any of them to give me a car or a house. I'm not like other models."
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