Mid Wales South League club Newcastle FC have confirmed that Rafael Benitez is not their manager, after French newspaper L'Equipe used a graphic saying that the former Liverpool manager was in charge of the local village side.
L'Equipe had been trying to highlight all the European managers in the Premier League. However, they got their geography wrong by about 250 miles.
Journalist Tom Williams was among those who took to Twitter to highlight L'Equipe's error.
Nearly, L’Equipe, but not quite... pic.twitter.com/TngIBYttlN
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) February 26, 2019
Most importantly of all Newcastle FC (the village team that is) have confirmed that the Spaniard is in fact not there manager. Speaking to the Powys County Times, club secretary Brian Evans said:
We don't want to have him, we've got a good one here!
While the Shropshire Newcastle FC have announced that they don't need Benitez as their manager. Evans has extended an invitation to Benitez to watch the club play in the Mid Wales South League. Benitez has yet to respond to the invitation.
The Shropshire based side are one of the few clubs that have special dispensation from the English FA to play in Wales. They currently lie third out of the twelve teams in the division having last won the league title in 2012.
Strangely this isn't the first time that the Shropshire based Newcastle FC have been confused with their Premier League namesakes.
Evans regaled a tale of a group of Dutch football fans turning up in the village for a youth international between England and the Netherlands, which was scheduled for St. James Park.
The club, like their North East namesake, also play in black and white.
Benitez future on Tyneside has been the subject of much speculation in recent months with the contract of the mastermind of the 'Miracle of Istanbul' set to run out at the end of the season.
