Roma pulling out of Singapore Festival of Football friendly with Tottenham?

SINGAPORE — The much-anticipated reunion of English Premier League (EPL) club Tottenham Hotspur with their former manager Jose Mourinho in Singapore is in jeopardy.

Italian sports media are reporting that Mourinho's current club, AS Roma, could be pulling out of their pre-season Asia tour to South Korea and Singapore, which includes a friendly with Tottenham on 26 July.

The friendly is part of the Festival of Football event, which is set to feature five top European football clubs in pre-season games at the Singapore National Stadium. Following the Spurs vs Roma match are two more ties at the same venue: Liverpool vs Leicester City (30 July) and Liverpool vs Bayern Munich (3 August).

However, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Roma are set to cancel their entire Asia trip, due to what the publication claims are missed payments from the organisers for the South Korean leg of their tour.

The Korea Herald had also reported on 30 June that the Italian club's summer exhibition tour matches in South Korea against EPL side Wolverhampton Wanderers and K-League 1 side Incheon United have been cancelled due to unmet financial obligations.

Event promoter Stadium X claimed that its agreement with the clubs only required an advance payment accounting for 70 per cent of the fee by the end of June, with the remaining 30 per cent to be paid after the matches. The company said that both Roma and Wolves demanded a 100 per cent payment up front and cancelled their trips unilaterally.

Yahoo Southeast Asia has reached out to the Festival of Football organisers for comments.

Training camp in Portugal instead

Roma will reportedly head instead to Algarve in Portugal - Mourinho's home country - where they will undergo a training camp, similar to what they had done in the past two seasons.

According to the Football London website, Tottenham have encountered no issues with their upcoming Asia-Pacific tour matches or organisers. Besides their Singapore commitments, Spurs will also be heading to Australia for pre-season friendlies with fellow England sides West Ham and Leicester.

Should Roma pull out of the Festival of Football, Ange Postecoglou's side could be facing new opponents in Singapore.

Roma finished sixth in the Italian Serie A last season, qualifying for the Europa League in the upcoming season. They reached the Europa League final last season, but lost to Spanish side Sevilla on penalties.

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