LIVERPOOL // The Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has reportedly rejected the terms of a new contract offer because it does not guarantee him enough control over the club's transfer policy.
The Spaniard has accepted the length of the deal and salary offered by the American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, but the Liverpool Echo reported that Benitez refused to sign it because he was not given enough power to sign new players.
Benitez is apparently keen to avoid a repeat of the situation before the start of this season, when Liverpool refused to meet Aston Villa's valuation for the England midfielder Gareth Barry.
"The owners feel that the manager's decisions need to be subject to the chief executive," the paper quoted Benitez as saying. "But I know that I am subject to results and to our fans and they are the best judges I will ever have."
Having won the 2005 Champions League at the end of his first season and returned to the final two years later, Benitez has guided Liverpool to the top of the Premier League this season.
The Reds are in contention for their first English championship since 1990. Benitez has presided over a large turnover of players during his tenure at Anfield with only captain Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia remaining from his first game in charge in August 2004.
"I have a lot of experience in football at different clubs and if you do not have a technical director and you are the manager you have to have control of the football decisions," Benitez said.
"But always within the confines of a budget which is controlled by the owners and the club. The only person who can decide the value of a player to his squad is the manager because he knows what elements are needed to improve the squad."
Benitez also wants more input into the running of the club's academy, which is supposed to supply players to Liverpool's first team.
Benitez, who won the Spanish league with Valencia, was offered a one-year extension by Hicks in April during a power struggle between the owners.
Hicks had sounded out Jurgen Klinsmann as a replacement months earlier.
"My relationship with the owners is better than people think," Benitez said.
"I have regular contact with them and especially with Tom Hicks who has always been very supportive. The talks between my agent and the advisers of the owners have been very positive and friendly and our differences are about my responsibilities."
*AP
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"