A date in 2012 at the Palace

José Mourinho may have walked through the gates of Stamford Bridge for the last time as Chelsea manager but he still has strong emotional ties with London and commitments to the capital’s sporting future.

He jumped at an invitation from Lord Coe, chairman of the organising committee for the London Olympics and a Chelsea supporter for 40 years, to become an ambassador for the 2012 Games and spoke emotionally – if somewhat prophetically – at the launch in June of the controversial new Olympic logo of his affection for the capital.

“London is home to my family and I love living in London,” he said. “It is a fantastic city.” Then he added that he would be, “if not at Chelsea, then at Crystal Palace” in 2012. Somebody better ring Simon Jordan, the Palace chairman, to get the chequebook ready.

Beam like Beckham

Adidas chose a tricky day to unveil its £100 million sponsorship deal with London 2012, the biggest so far for the Olympic Games organiser. With all eyes on Chelsea, whom adidas coincidentally sponsors, the German company was anxious to press home its message backed by big names in sport. But, er, not many British ones.

So a new sponsor from Germany treated its guests at a London theatre to a lineup of stars headed by the still adorable Nadia Comaneci, the legendary Romanian gymnast, plus Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix, the United States’ world sprint champions. The best of British stars mustered by adidas was Daley Thompson, who won the last of his two Olympic decathlete gold medals in 1984. Oh, and David Beckham.

Well, Beckham in a sense, in that he appeared on stage at the Astoria Theatre as a clever hologram projection. As one wag put it: “That would solve England’s problems of getting him across from Los Angeles. Just beam him back.”

Galaxy game will come at a high price for ratepayers

The ratepayers in New Zealand’s capital of Wellington may prefer a hologram of Beckham. It would be cheaper. They are not at all happy after discovering that the city council has put up some of the £1 million cost of getting Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy team over for a friendly with Wellington Phoenix later in the year. Apparently, the deal guarantees that Beckham will play for almost an hour – which is more than Steve McLaren, the England head coach, could expect from his crocked star.

Even by Beckhamesque standards, the deal brokered by London 2012 with adidas is lucrative. The sportswear firm will pay about £70 million up front, with the rest being spent on providing clothing for 3,000 athletes and the 70,000 volunteers staffing the Games, plus a range of innovative measures to promote sport. By the way, adidas will provide kit for 25 of the 26 sports at the 2012 Games. A bottle of bubbly to the reader who knows which sport misses out. Answers by Monday morning to the e-mail address below.

E-mail: theinsider@thetimes.co.uk