Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, purchased the 1896–1910 Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup) at an auction.

The FA Cup was the first trophy won by Manchester City 116 years ago when they defeated Bolton Wanderers 1-0 in 1904 final, making the Manchester club the first professional football club from Manchester to capture a major honour. They are now the proud custodian of their first trophy.

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The club tweeted, “We are delighted to announce we are now the proud custodian of the 1896–1910 #FACup following the recent purchase of the trophy at auction by Club owner, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed.”

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We are delighted to announce we are now the proud custodian of the 1896–1910 #FACup following the recent purchase of the trophy at auction by Club owner, His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed.

🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5rehttps://t.co/eRBRdbTFm0

— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 8, 2021

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Etihad chairman, Sheikh Khaldoon al-Mubarak, on commenting on the purchase said: “This Cup is a visible reminder of the rich and long history of English football to which Manchester City is inextricably entwined.

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“Winning this actual trophy in 1904 was a turning point for the Club and for the city of Manchester in that it firmly cemented football in the heart of its community.”

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What you should know

• The cup was previously the property of West Ham co-owner, David Gold, before he put it up for sale last year September by an anonymous buyer which is now revealed to be Manchester City’s owner.
• Auctioneers Bonhams had announced that a particular item of silverware was sold for £760,000 ($1.03m).
• The cup is the forerunner of the current FA Cup and also the oldest surviving piece of FA Cup silverware in England and the one first used in 1871 stolen from a shop while on display following Aston Villa’s triumph in 1895 and that was the last time it was seen.
• Originally, there were fears that the trophy would be bought privately and taken overseas, before Mansour stepped in to ensure the trophy will remain in England for the benefit of English football.
• The trophy has been offered to the National Football Museum in Manchester, England on loan, where it has been housed for the past 16 years, 2005.

Former President of FIFA, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, was reportedly rushed to the hospital in Switzerland over a serious situation, but not life-threatening.

This isn’t the first time Blatter has been hospitalised, with the Swiss suffering health problems in November 2015 and July 2016.

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The daughter of the 84-year-old, Corinne Blatter, confirmed the reports stating, “My father is in hospital. He’s getting better every day. But he needs time and rest.”

In her statement, Corinne asked for privacy on behalf of her family.

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What you should know:

• Blatter served as the FIFA president for 17 years, from 1998-2015.
• He is currently serving a six-year ban. He was banned by FIFA’s ethics committee in 2015 from football for eight years where he was found guilty of a series of breaches including a conflict of interest and dereliction of duty over a 2million Swiss francs (£1.35m) “disloyal payment”.
• A FIFA appeals committee upheld the suspension but reduced it from eight years to six.
• The Swiss currently under criminal investigation over an alleged undue payment to the former UEFA president Michel Platini. Both Platini and Blatter have continued to maintain they did nothing wrong.

Arsenal, a top football team in England, recently applied for a short-term loan valued at about £120 million, in closing the gap of incurred revenue losses caused by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

What you should know

Arsenal met the requirement set by the Bank of England to qualify for the United kingdom government’s COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility, created in providing short-tenor loans at fair rates to businesses that contribute remarkably to the British economy.

• The short term loan was taken by Arsenal in maintaining the club’s positive cash flow, so as to be able to pay its footballers and other staff members their wages.
• Arsenal, like many other leading football clubs in Europe, has witnessed large revenue losses because of the restriction of human mobility, in order to curb COVID-19.

Arsenal issued a statement as regards the short term loan, giving more details on why it decided to go through that route;

“As we continue to work through the implications of the global pandemic on our finances, we can confirm today that the club has met the criteria set by the Bank of England for the Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).

“As a result, we are taking a short-term £120 million loans through this facility to partially assist in managing the impacts of the revenue losses attributable to the pandemic. This is a similar approach to that taken by a wide variety of major organizations across many industries, including sport and is repayable in May 2021.

“The CCFF is designed to provide short-term finance at commercial rates during the pandemic to companies that have strong investment ratings and which make significant contributions to the British economy.

It’s important to note that Arsenal’s city rival, Tottenham Hotspur borrowed £175 million from the Bank of England, in 2020 in order to cover losses caused by the COVID-19 virus onslaught