Football News: Review Of The Day 9th March 2021

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Swansea City winger Jordon Garrick has signed a two-year contract extension to take his contract into summer 2023.

Transfers

Free agent midfielder Keaton Ward has re-signed for Mansfield Town. The 20 year old graduated through the club's academy before leaving for Barnsley in the summer of 2019.

After one of West Ham United's co-owners, David Sullivan, put a £100m price tag on star midfielder Declan Rice, manager David Moyes has said he believes Rice is worth "far, far more" and " wouldn't be sanctioning anything like that, that's for sure."

Legendary Napoli midfielder Marek Hamsik has left Chinese Super League side Dalian Pro to sign for IFK Gothenborg on a free transfer.

Major League Soccer's DC United have taken American central defender Brendan Hines-Ike on loan from KV Kortrijk.

Also in MLS, Columbus Crew have paid a fee of £1.35m to sign Alexandru Matan from FC Viitorul of the Romanian Liga 1.

Free agent teenage forward Ali Akman has signed for Eintracht Frankfurt.

Free agent former Swansea City and Cardiff City right-back Jazz Richards has signed for Haverfordwest County of the Cymru Premier.

Elche have added experienced free agent winger Pablo Piatti to their squad.

Injury Round-Up

Managerial Changes

Harry Kewell has been sacked by Oldham Athletic after seven months in charge of the League Two club. He was also the seventh different manager since Abdallah Lemsagam bought the club in 2018.

Disciplinary Charges

Mansfield Town captain Ollie Clarke has had his red card from the 1-0 loss to Bradford City overturned. The 28 year old was sent off in injury-time after being alleged to have elbowed Connor Wood. His three match ban has been rescinded.

Salford City have been fined £1500 after admitting an FA charge of failing to ensure players conduct themselves in an orderly fashion. The charge related to an incident in the 97th minute of their 2-1 loss to Morcambe, when they thought they had scored an equaliser only for the referee to rule it out for a foul in the build-up.

Rochdale's appeal against the red card shown to Conor Shaugnessy has been successful. The midfielder was sent off for a challenge on Hull City defender Reece Burke, but the appeal was won as a wrongful dismissal.

Former Confederation of African Football president Ahmad's appeal against a 5-year ban from the sport failed to overturn the ban completely, meaning he will be unable to run for the presidency again this year. His ban was reduced to 2 years and his fine was reduced from $200,000 to $50,000, but that was not enough to make him eligible to run. With the three other rivals withdrawing their candidacy over the weekend, South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe will be the new CAF president.

The Romanian fourth official who was embroiled in a racism row during the Champions League group game in Paris between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Baseksehir, has been suspended until the end of the season for "inappropriate behaviour". Sebastian Coltescu and assistant referee Octavian Sovre have both been ordered to undertake an educational programme despite it being decided by UEFA that they did not violate its racism and other discriminatory conduct Article 14 DR. Sovre was reprimanded for his part in the incident which saw both teams walk off the pitch and refuse to play while Coltescu was involved. It does beg the question, if what they did was not deemed to be racist, what was inappropriate about it? UEFA have also banned Baseksehir coach Pierre Webo for one match for unsporting conduct after he was sent off during an angry exchange prompted by the "inappropriate" words used by Coltescu regarding the colour of his skin.

Sporting Clube de Portugal have hit out at "one of the most regrettable and surreal episodes in the history of Portuguese football." They and their head coach Ruben Amorim are facing charges of fraud, as it is alleged they registered Amorim as an assistant coach and not a head coach. Sporting have claimed that an attempt is being made "to seriously damage the promising career of a very competent young coach." Sporting are currently 10 points clear in the Liga NOS table after playing 22 matches of the season.

EFL To Kick Off 6th August

The English Football League have announced the dates for the 2021-22 season, with the first game set to be played on 6th August 2021. The play-off finals will be held at Wembley over the last two weekends in May 2022, while the League Cup final will take place on the last Sunday in February.

Bahrain Interest In Latics

League One club Wigan Athletic could possibly be bought by a consortium led by a Bahraini businessman. Talal Mubarak al-Hammad is in advanced talks with the Latics' administrators, though there has been no payments yet made and there are still other interested parties.

Laporta Returns To Barca

Barcelona have looked back to the man who oversaw the appointment of Pep Guardiola as manager at the club, as they turn the clock back to appoint Joan Laporta as president again. Laporta was previously club president between 2003 and 2010, when he brought in the likes of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o. The 58 year old's central pledge was keeping Lionel Messi at the club, despite the club's massive financial difficulties and the Argentine's enormous salary.

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Written by Tris Burke March 09 2021 04:20:35