Football News: Review Of The Day 6th June 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

Santi Cazorla has completed his move to Villareal from Arsenal. The Spanish midfielder has been out of action for a long time with an ankle injury that got infected.

Reading have signed Hull City midfielder David Meyler following his release.

Wigan Athletic have paid an 'undisclosed fee' to sign Leonardo Da Silva Lopes from Peterborough United. Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has described it as a 'seven-figure sale'.

Walsall have signed Josh Ginnelly on a free transfer after the young winger was released by Burnley.

George Francomb has joined Crawley Town on a free. The 26 year old midfielder was released by AFC Wimbledon this summer.

Motherwell catches goalkeeper Mark Gillespie on a free transfer after the Englishman left Walsall.

Arsenal have made their first signing of the Unai Emery era by picking up veteran right back Stephan Lichsteiner from Juventus. The 34 year old Swiss captain currently has 99 caps for his country.

Despite their promotion to the Premier League, Fulham have lost right back Ryan Fredericks on a free transfer to West Ham United.

Manchester United have reached an agreement with Shakhtar Donetsk to sign 25 year old Brazilian midfielder Fred for £53m.

Exeter City have released seven players. The seven are Troy Archibald-Henville (sounds more like a Victorian adventurer than a footballer!), Robbie Simpson, Ryan Brunt, Liam McAlinden, Dan Seaborne, Alex Byrne and Lewis Williams.

Real Madrid have sold Austrian defender Philipp Lienhart to Freiburg in the Bundesliga.

Strasbourg have signed Serbian international defender Stefan Mitrovic from KAA Gent.

Villa Suspend Chief Executive

Championship side Aston Villa have suspended their chief executive Keith Wyness. The club have stated that owner and chairman Dr Tony Xia will add that role to his responsibilities until further notice. News also emerged that the club have an unpaid tax bill that they are working with HMRC to resolve, though it is denied that Wyness' suspension is related to that.

Hamilton Worst Pitch In Scotland

Scottish professional footballers have voted Hamilton Academicals as the worst pitch in Scotland. No wonder they have planned to lay a new surface in the summer!

Buffon Given Three Match Ban

Gianluigi Buffon has been given a three match ban by UEFA for his comments about referee Michael Oliver, made while he was still a Juventus player. Buffon was sent off against Real Madrid for dissent after Madrid were awarded a last-gasp penalty in the Champions League quarter final between the two sides. Buffon continued to make insulting comments in the papers in the days following the game and said he stood by them when asked later. He will now miss his next three European matches.

Roma Fined

Following on from news that Manchester City and Liverpool were fined by UEFA, Liverpool's semi-final opponents AS Roma have also received a fine and been banned from selling tickets to their fans for the next away game in Europe. The fine of 50,000 euros was levied for crowd disturbances against Liverpool in the away league at Anfield.

Prize Money Increase In Europe

UEFA have announced a prize money increase for European competitions from next season. Last season the prize pot shared between competing sides was £2.06bn, it has now been increased to £2.84bn. Though UEFA has also stated that £457m will be deducted for organisational costs and solidarity payments. The two Madrid rivals, Atletico and Real, will face each other in the UEFA Super Cup with a prize of £870,000 to the winner. Both teams will receive a payment of £3.06m for competing.

Argentina Cancel Israel Friendly

Argentina were set to play a World Cup warm up game against Israel on Saturday, but the game has now been cancelled. The game was controversial, for obvious reasons, with Argentina's foreign minister Jorge Faurie already having said that Argentina's players were not happy with the plan: "As far as I know, the players of the national team were not willing to play the game." Head coach Jorge Sampaoli was also open about his unhappiness with the decision to play Israel in Israel: "From a sporting point of view, I would have preferred to play in Barcelona. But that's the way it is, we have to travel on the day before the match, play Israel in Israel and then from there go on to Russia." The Israeli embassy has claimed that the game was cancelled due to 'threats and provocations' against Messi.

Mastercard Forced To Dump Goals For Cash

Mastercard have been forced to scrap their plan to donate 10,000 meals to hungry children every time either Lionel Messi or Neymar Jr scored in the forthcoming World Cup. Even Brazil's head coach Tite, whose team is sponsored by Mastercard, expressed his disapproval of their plan to only give money if Neymar scores. Mastercard said: "We don't want fans, players or anyone to lose focus on the critical issue of hunger and our efforts to raise support for this cause. Based on the feedback, we are adjusting this campaign to replace the 10,000 meals donation per goal by Messi and Neymar Jr with a contribution of one million meals in 2018. This is in addition to 400K meals we have already donated as part of the campaign."

Boksic Pays Tribute To Disgraced Tapie

Former Marseille forward Alen Boksic has paid tribute to former club president Bernard Tapie for buying games for the team but paying the players a win bonus anyway. The former Croatia striker said on Croatian TV show Vecernji pressing: "Recently I went to Marseille for the 25th anniversary of winning the European Cup. We were a great team and had the best president. He bought a game for us and then we even got a bonus for that victory! And in the end he got punished (in jail, suspended from football) and us players profited. As I arrived to Marseille, I was young and ready, and I played with Rudi Voller, who was older and didn't have to prove himself any more, so he was not selfish and allowed me to score as much as I can. That helped me a lot."

Toure Continues Bitter Rant About Pep

Following on from his previous comments in France Football, were Yaya Toure accused Man City manager Pep Guardiola of being racist against Africans by leaving him out of the team, Toure has continued his tirade against the Spaniard in more comments released by the publication. Toure said: "I had a few difficulties with Pep in Barcelona. But he told me it was down to his agent, who had supposedly not spoken respectfully to him. Consequently, this became a sort of fixation for him. Like all players, I would joke with my coaches. With Banide, Boloni, Mancini, Pellegrini. But eventually, you reach a common ground and reconcile. With Pep, it's impossible because he's so rigid. The other players won't publicly say it, but some have grown to hate him. He's manipulative and messes with players' heads. When he arrived to City, he told me right from the beginning that he needed someone to guide the younger ones. Even though there were chances for me to leave, I told myself that I could become a City legend. The same thing happened last summer when he asked me to stay. Maybe he was scared of losing the dressing room if I left, because he knew what I meant to the group. But after deadline day, I saw that he was not including me in the squad." Yaya also claimed Pep wanted some kind of revenge on him, though he did not specify what, then continued: "Maybe he was jealous and thought I was his rival. That's probably it. We gave weird looks to each other. He would observe and gauge me without saying anything. I speak Catalan, Spanish and English. That should be enough to communicate with me. I guess not... Every time we ran into each other, he seemed uncomfortable. As if I blocked the light on him. As if he understood how to read me perfectly."

Rudi Voller Confirms Leno Is Available For Transfer

Bayer Leverkusen's sporting director Rudi Voller has said that goalkeeper Bernd Leno is available for a transfer, if their terms are met. Voller said: "Leno can leave but only on our terms. We are still in constant and open exchange with Bernd and his manager. Leno already had a concrete offer from Napoli in 2017, but we didn't have an equivalent backup at the time. He had to stay and he did really well last season, but we thought Bernd's desire to leave would resurface so and so with the arrival of Lukáš Hrádecký we have a high quality successor."

Messi Beats Ronaldo On Rich List

Forbes annual guesstimate of top sportspeople's earnings has placed Lionel Messi just ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo for last year. Both lag some way behind top earner Floyd Mayweather though.
Forbes Top 10:
1. Floyd Mayweather, $374 million (boxing)
2. Lionel Messi, $146 million
3. Cristiano Ronaldo, $142million
4. Conor McGregor, $130 million (MMA & boxing)
5. Neymar, $118 million
6. LeBron James, $112 million (basketball)
7. Roger Federer, $101 million (tennis)
8. Stephen Curry, $101 million (basketball)
9. Matt Ryan, $88 million (American football)
10. Matthew Stanford, $78 million (American football)

Written by Tris Burke June 06 2018 07:40:45