Barcelona and Guardiola now join forces behind Real Madrid's Mourinho for Sir Bobby
By Sportingintelligence
6 October 2011
Barcelona and their Champions League-winning coach Pep Guardiola have today confirmed they will offer exclusive 'insider' access to training, a signed shirt, a meet and greet with all their global stars - including Lionel Messi - plus match tickets to a Barca game in honour of Sir Bobby Robson, a former Barca manager.
The prize will be one of more than 100 lots in an online auction starting on Saturday, and Barca's official website is carrying the news as its main item today (Thursday, link here).
Barca's contribution comes in the wake of Jose Mourinho donating the most significant trophy of his own glittering career - his Fifa World Coach of the Year Award for 2010 - as an auction lot.
The ‘money can’t buy’ prizes will be among more than 100 available in an online auction between 8-23 October from a huge range of sporting and non-sporting benefactors.
Sir Bobby died two years ago at the age of 76. The online auction, from 8-23 October, and a charity ball next month will raise funds for The Sir Bobby Foundation and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
The auction has also been supported by HRH the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister David Cameron. Auction founder Gina Long added: ‘When I started planning the auction, I could only have dreamt that I would get support from such magnificent people and great companies.
‘But now that has been turned into reality, it can only help us achieve our goal of raising more than £250,000 for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Suffolk Breakthrough Breast Cancer.’
Last month we reported how Mourinho has donated his World Coach of the Year award from 2010 to the auction and was just the latest manager among the biggest names in the game to donate auction lots and pay tribute to the influence of Sir Bobby.
Chelsea’s Andre Villas-Boas has given a donation (link here), as has Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson (link here) and Leicester’s Sven Goran Eriksson, a former England manager, as Sir Bobby was. Last week we reported how the England and India cricket teams, and Wolves, are also involved.
For me details follow the link to the auction site, www.sirbobbysbreakthroughauction.com
Sportingintelligence is proud to be among the supporters of the auction.
Some of the sports-related lots already pledged include:
A chance to attend England national football training as a guest of Fabio Capello … A chance to play a match at Sir Bobby’s old club, Ipswich Town, with two winning bid teams being trained by Robson-era stars and using the dressing rooms, executive box and boardroom … Tickets to the glitzy, star-studded PFA Player of the Year award bash next April … A rare, signed, limited-edition copy of the autobiography of Pele … one of John Motson’s commentary charts from a big game … the signed Chelsea shirt, tickets and chance to meet Villas-Boas … an England Shirt signed by the majority of the squad involved in the recent friendly with Ghana … hospitality and premier enclosure badges at Newmarket races … a pair of Centre Court tickets in the first week of Wimbledon2012 … a pair of tickets to the final of the Masters snooker at Wembley in January … a racing shirt signed by the British Touring Car Championships drivers, Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal … a framed print of the old Wembley Stadium, signed by Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff Hurst … a day at “The Audi Driving Experience” at Silverstone, with qualified instructors flown in from Germany especially … a Liverpool shirt signed by Andy Carroll (and match tickets).
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A full list of ‘money can’t buy’ lots, with more to come, can be found at www.sirbobbysbreakthroughauction.com. The auction takes place in October, online.
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