Richard Rufus in court over £18m debts as Charlton legend faces separate probe over £5m missing from Church
- Richard Rufus is understood to have debts of more than £18million
- Chelsea captain John Terry accepts invitation to speak at Football Writers’ Association function
- New FA chief executive Martin Glenn said he fully supports Greg Dyke’s aim of England winning the 2022 World Cup
Richard Rufus, the former footballer voted Charlton’s greatest ever defender in 2005, appears at a High Court bankruptcy hearing on Wednesday to face multi-million-pound fraud charges.
Rufus is understood to have debts of more than £18million, having allegedly misappropriated funds trusted to him by 93 investors. The official receiver, who lodged the application for a bankruptcy restriction order, has 16 files of evidence against the 40-year-old.
Separately, the Church Commissioners are investigating how £5m given by Kingsway International Christian Centre in Walthamstow to trustee Rufus — a born-again Christian — to invest has gone missing.
Former Charlton defender Richard Rufus (right) is understood to have debts of more than £18million
One of many people owed money by Rufus is former Chelsea star Paul Elliott, a close family friend who counselled Rufus when he suffered the same career-ending cruciate ligament injury as him. The much-respected Elliott stood down from important positions in the game after a text message exchange emerged in which he called fellow black footballer Rufus a ‘n*****’.
Two years on, Elliott is just starting to regain his high-level footballing roles after a fanciful libel action by Rufus against him was dismissed.
Rufus has missed a number of court hearings saying ‘God is my only judge’.
One of many people owed money by Rufus is former Chelsea star Paul Elliott
New ECB chairman Colin Graves showed an arrogance akin to that of his haughty predecessor Giles Clarke when asked by Michael Atherton whether he regretted calling the West Indies Test team ‘mediocre’ and making comments about Kevin Pietersen which sparked turmoil. His reply at the ECB awards dinner — ‘No, I’m Colin Graves’ — effectively means: ‘I do what I want.’
New ECB chairman Colin Graves has showed glimpses of his haughty predecessor Giles Clarke recently
The furore over former elite referee Mark Halsey being prevented from addressing Sheffield referees is said to be one of the reasons for the resignation of Laura Ritchie as chair of the Referees’ Association.
Ritchie was responsible for contacting the Sheffield branch to tell them a senior figure in football was objecting to them booking Halsey — a fierce critic of Premier League officials. Ritchie, who never named the objector, has now quit, citing personal reasons, but an RA spokesman said the Halsey snub was a factor.
With the amount of track-repair work blighting rail travel on FA Cup final Saturday, BBC Sport are taking a risk in having veteran commentator John Motson make announcements on the London-Birmingham line. It could antagonise rather than amuse. And statistics-loving Motty will be expected to know exactly when each train will arrive.
BBC football commentator John Motson is set to make rail announcements prior to the FA Cup final
TERRY BUILDS BRIDGES
It's a sign of Chelsea captain John Terry’s improving relationship with the media that he would have accepted an invitation to speak about team-mate and Footballer of the Year Eden Hazard at Thursday’s Football Writers’ Association function if he wasn’t on holiday — as the whole Chelsea team seem to have been since winning the title.
The writers had Terry in their top three, yet he wasn’t even on a six-strong shortlist for the PFA honour voted by players.
Chelsea captain John Terry has accepted an invitation to speak at the Football Writers’ Association function
Meanwhile, director Marina Granovskaia, owner Roman Abramovich’s representative and transfer negotiator at Chelsea, was originally advertised as a speaker at a women in sport conference at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
That would have been the nearest thing to listening to Abramovich, who has never spoken in public since buying Chelsea. But Granovskaia is not available due to work commitments, suggesting Chelsea are busy on the transfer front.
New FA chief executive Martin Glenn, in his first easy interview with the in-house website, said he fully supported Greg Dyke’s aim of England winning the 2022 World Cup, comparing the ambition to John F Kennedy putting a man on the moon. However, the FA as a modern-day Camelot is hard to imagine.
At a time when cricket counties are crying out for free-to-air coverage to grow the game, the ECB’s snug relationship with Sky is such that not only was the new director of communications recruited from Isleworth, but Sky Sports overlord Barney Francis, presenting an ECB award, described himself as a ‘close friend’ of new ECB chief executive Tom Harrison.
New FA chief executive Martin Glenn has supported Greg Dyke’s aim of England winning the 2022 World Cup
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