Blue Eagles midfielder wins top FIFA gig; Tony Vidmar’s old career on the rise and Salley quits Qingdao Red Lions
An ex-Blue Eagles midfielder has earned a lucrative FIFA gig; A former Reds favourite quits China club; and Michael Valkanis takes on national team coaching role, in this week’s edition of 90 Minutes.
SA-BORN KING PIN AT FIFA HEADQUARTERS
A former Adelaide Blue Eagles defender has been promoted to winning one of the most important jobs in football on the planet.
Gary Moretti, one of the stars of the former Azzurri championship sides in the 1990s, has just moved to Zurich.
He spent more than five years in Doha, Qatar working as a senior manager — football events and education for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (in essence the 2022 World Cup local organising committee).
The former Socceroos team manager is now the head of FIFA’s competition management.
The FIFA role job description includes ensuring all competition management related matters like policies and regulations, tournament match operations, FIFA general co-ordinators and FIFA match commissioners, tournament draws, match schedules, competition and team management.
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Moretti also acts as a FIFA ambassador at FIFA events.
In Qatar, Moretti helped turn the Workers Cup annual tournament into the second biggest domestic football event in Qatar just behind Qatar Soccer League’s Emir Cup final
He also managed Qatar’s international program, sending hundreds of Qatari staff and international staff to major football events like the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro tournaments to learn and bring the knowledge back to Qatar for the 2022 showcase.
SALLEY QUITS CHINESE GIG
GYAWE Jonas Salley has quit his job at Adelaide United’s sister club Qingdao Red Lions and is heading home.
The much adored ex Adelaide United defensive midfielder was an assistant coach at Qingdao.
Salley, 37, says he is returning to Adelaide this week for personal reasons.
“I have been here for almost three months,’’ Salley said from Qingdao.
“We had a game and I decided to go back to Qingdao to collect (my belongings) that’s life.”
Salley commenced work in May for the Red Lions in Chinese League two after his visa had arrived.
He was headhunted by the Chinese outfit which has the same chairman as Adelaide’s Piet van der Pol — working under Slovenian boss Tomaž Kavčič, a former Slovenian national team coach.
Qingdao is currently sitting 12th in the League two north group, four points clear of the relegation play offs after a 3-0 loss to Hebei Aoli Elite at home on the weekend.
THE OTHER VIDDIE A HANDY GOLFER TOO
ADELAIDE City and Socceroos legend and Tony Vidmar is very handy with a golf club according to the results at the midweek A-Grade competition at the Grange Golf Club.
Currently an assistant coach to Graham Arnold at the Socceroos, Viddie who now resides in Adelaide mainly after commuting to Melbourne for his last assistant’s role at A-League outfit Melbourne City told 90 Minutes he had a bad day at the course after results were published in The Advertiser.
On a tough day for scoring, Viddie managed 31 points to finish seventh.
Golf and ex-soccer players appear to go hand-in-hand with Adelaide City and Socceroos legend Damian Mori ar regular on the golf course so too was Aurelio Vidmar, Carl Veart and Campbelltown City’s assistant coach Phil Stubbins.
The former Adelaide United coach was a professional golfer after ending his NSL career.
GREECE IS THE WORD FOR VALKANIS
Michael Valkanis — a former Adelaide United captain and Reds interim coach — has landed a lucrative assistant coaching role with the Greek national team.
Valkanis will be on the bench alongside his former boss at Melbourne City John Van’t Schip.
Van’t Schip was appointed as the head coach of the 2004 EURO champion.
The pair also worked as a team at Dutch club PEC Zwolle.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Former Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin doing what he does best …