It's not hard at all to make the switch from United to Oranje. For a manager, it's totally different than for a player.
Pro football was taking off when I became commissioner, and when a sport's successful and you're its chief executive officer, much of the credit flows to you and you develop a good track record.
Football is a business, at the end of the day.
It's true, I had a lot of offers from very good teams, but I decided Juventus because I think the project is very big, and they have very big aims, and I want to be a part of the big project here.
Traditionally, sport has looked down at number crunchers, but the reality is that they give sport the financial sustenance it needs.
I am absolutely happy to train Real Madrid. I have a wonderful challenge.
I've been able to not only be a fighter, but a thinking fighter, where I can use my insight into the business and politics of the sport to make my decisions.
There's so much hard work, dedication, and focus goes in from not just the athletes but from the coaches, officials, governing bodies, and Sport Wales. It's a real team effort, and it's rightly called Team Wales.
I am a footballer. I know how to play football, and I know how to manage projects in the area of football. This is what I want to limit myself to.
I always thought just because I love football, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm desperate to manage.
With more sponsors coming in, media engagements happening, and matches being televised, youngsters can get carried away. In such a scenario, a mentor can step in and help in channelising the cricketers' energies into the sport.
A cricket team is always made up of 11 different individuals and you want to give them enough flexibility to be themselves.
I think one of the concerns, anytime you're in the human business, like sports, it's a very high - risk endeavor. You do have to get players every year. You have to deal with calendar. You have to deal with all kinds of things in our sport, like every sport does.
Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.
The more I've done work with the IOC the more I've come to realize I'm really excited about this, the work that I'm doing and the impact that I can have if I'm fully committed to it.
In the UFC, at first we were like a family, but then it turned corporate. In Bellator, we're family.
Our sport is ruled whether it's for good and bad, or whatever, for technical things. There's lots of teams out there that could and should have done better if they'd have had technical things. I suppose in the end that basically revolves around how much money they're gonna get.
Everything depends on the club more than the player: the quantities, the paperwork.
You can't really force four tournaments a year.
We need to wake up to idea that you cannot treat sport on equal terms with other parts of the economy.
I always wanted to work on the long term and help structure things. I wanted to be a sporting director.
I would like football clubs to be more aware of what their philosophy is, then recruit managers who fit the profile that suits them.
You balance sport and business by having a sustainable model for a club and by winning. Because winning makes people feel better.
I have the vision for where the sport is gonna go and what we're gonna do and the different types of fights.
I think the officials and NFL owners are playing to the type of game that people want to see.
