And if I don’t introduce a sub into a game, then I’ve made a mistake People talk about the British media. Believe me, they are absolute gentlemen compared to the Portuguese media.”He makes it sound as if he is struggling at Benfica The facts paint a different picture. After training I have to deal with 40 journalists, writing for three national sports newspapers, and 10 camera crews That’s every day.”Every single thing you do is scrutinised. I’m talking about a monster of a club here.”Surely Souness has grown used to such conditions at Anfield and Ibrox? “Yes, I have,” he agrees “But Benfica’s something different altogether. Of course, the likes of Porto and Sporting have good, European track records, but in terms of interest, it’s only Benfica. “It’s not just the biggest club in Portugal,” he says, as he takes his Barbour off, and rubs his cold hands close to the warmth of the raging coal fire “It’s the only club.
A short and fruitless spell with Torino preceded the move to Lisbon.All this is some list by anyone’s standards, yet for all the magnitude of most of his previous clubs, Souness insists nothing compares to Benfica. Taking an enforced year’s sabbatical he then re-emerged in Istanbul, where he coached Galatasaray to various domestic honours, before returning to England as manager of Southampton. As one of the most gifted midfield players of his generation, the Scottish international, having begun professional life at Tottenham and then Middlesbrough, won every club honour imaginable at Liverpool and Sampdoria before taking over the player-manager’s reins at Rangers and transforming the club back into Scotland’s premier outfit.A less successful spell at Liverpool followed, although in winning the FA Cup in 1992 with a squad of ageing players left behind by the former manager, Kenny Dalglish, coupled with personal health problems, Souness’s achievement has never quite been recognised. Two days earlier Graeme Souness had been inside Benfica’s Stadium of Light urging and cajoling the largest football club in Portugal to win a vital match. The noise in one of Europe’s, if not the world’s greatest sporting venues is deafening The expectancy is enormous. The pressure for the Benfica coach is unrelenting.
“I’m expected to lead Benfica to the Portuguese league championship, and to win the European Champions’ League,” he says, with a wry smile on his face. “Nothing too strenuous, then.”The Souness home back in England, nestled in Hampshire countryside close to the fine city of Winchester, serves as a peaceful haven for the man who has either played at or been in charge of some of Europe’s major football establishments.
“Brown trout.” As if on demand, a brown fleck skims across the surface before disappearing under the bridge. They allege the book is libellous because it suggests they were in fact guilty of the charges which were quashed by the Court of Appeal in March 1991.Sir Louis served notice last week that he intends to defend Duckworth’s claim.. HE LEANS against the small bridge over a running stream of water, takes a deep breath of cold, country air, and inspects the water below “You get trout in there,” he says. Sir Louis is also named in two of the libel actions.When the barrister wrote his book in 1997 he signed a publishing agreement, which Duckworth claims included the provision that the book would contain nothing “objectionable or libellous”.Duckworth claims he signed an indemnity against any “loss, injury or damage including legal costs or expenses as the result of any claim” against them over the book.In July and August this year the Birmingham Six started libel proceedings. Their definition of full membership excludes all “overseas” members.The 25 EU members claim that the RAC never informed them of the rule change, which would have permitted them to change their status to full members, making them eligible for a payout.So far around half a dozen writs have been issued by various overseas member groups, including Ladies, Retired, and those newly returned to the UK.Today a group of US-based RAC members will attend a hearing in California to decide whether the courts there have the jurisdiction to hear their claim against the RAC.THE COMPANY that published Sir Louis Blom-Cooper’s book The Birmingham Six and Other Cases last year is suing the barrister for funds to cover its own defence costs in the three libel cases that the Birmingham Six have now brought against the publishers in the Dublin courts.Gerald Duckworth, a publishing company founded over 100 years ago, issued a writ against the noted barrister on 20 November.
They claim that two years ago the RAC changed its membership rules so that those who lived or worked in the EU no longer had to register themselves as “overseas members.”The point is that only the 12,000 full members of the RAC will be able to receive the pounds 35,000 payout when the roadside service is sold to Cendant of the US The RAC membership voted to confirm the deal in August. The Legal Aid Board has spent half a million chasing rainbows.”LEGAL ACTION by over 1,200 overseas members of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) over their exclusion from the pounds 450m sale of the RAC’s roadside activities is about to spark back into life, after a lull since the summer.Last week 25 members of the club who were living in the European Union in 1996, and who claim that the RAC failed to inform them of vital rule changes dating back to 1996, launched a joint writ against the RAC. Last week Sony Music paid pounds 80,000 to PMSA to settle the claim.Tony Morris, the music industry lawyer at Marriott Harrison, the media law firm which acted for PMSA, commented: “It is unbelievable that legal aid funded this action at all, let alone the innumerable procedural applications made since 1990. PMSA meanwhile applied to put itself into voluntary liquidation Sony kept the royalties pending the case’s resolution. The row was between a tax-shelter company based in Panama called Presentaciones Musicales SA (PMSA), which used to own the rights to the rock star’s recordings, and Daniel Secunda, a music agent based in London.
The saga, which has been dubbed “the Bleak House of music industry litigation,” started in 1983 when Sony released The Jimi Hendrix Concerts Album, culled from 600 hours of the guitarist’s unreleased tapes.PMSA sued Mr Secunda over his role in putting the album together, and he counter-sued, claiming copyright to the material and demanding commission and expenses for performing his role as an agent.Mr Secunda was granted legal aid in 1990 to continue to defend himself against PMSA. The transport group is set to post interims of around pounds 90m, up from pounds 70.5m a year ago.
South West Trains and the train leasing company Porterbrook will be the star performers.. A TEN-YEAR-OLD legal dispute over royalties on an album by the late Jimi Hendrix was finally settled last week, after costing Britain’s Legal Aid Board an estimated pounds 500,000. The City expects double digit growth to around pounds 160m, driven by big contract wins, acquisitions in the US and France,and the performance of its Upper Crust and Ritazza sandwich and coffee bars.Stagecoach is also likely to please the City. The developer, which owns a large chunk of the City’s offices, is set to post flat interims of around pounds 46m.A dose of buoyancy will be served on Thursday with the catering giant Compass’s yearly figures.
