Football News: Review Of The Day 18th June 2022

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Reading have given Andy Yiadom and Tom Holmes new 3-year deals.

Goalkeeper Matt Ingram has also signed a new 3-year contract, but his is with Hull City.

MK Dons have agreed a new deal with former Chelsea youngster Josh McEachran.

Jack Hunt has signed a new contract with Sheffield Wednesday.

Veteran Burton Albion defender John Brayford has signed a 2-year deal.

Teenage Ipwich Town defender, the first Indonesian to play in the English Football League, Elkan Baggott, has signed a 3-year contract.

Luke Waterfall has extended his stay with Grimsby Town until 2024.

Thiago Mendes has agreed to stay with Olympique Lyonnais until 2025.

Paris Saint-Germain have given teenage takent Ismael Gharbi a three-year deal.

Juventus right-back Mattia De Sciglio has extended his deal until 2025.

Cagliari have tied down Andrea Carboni until 2027.

Young midfielder Antonio Foti has signed a 3-year contract with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Transfers

Liverpool have agreed a deal worth up to £35m to them to sell Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich.

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of Yves Bissouma from Brighton & Hove Albion for an initial fee of £26.28m.

Going in at Brighton is teenage Paraguay forward Julio Enciso from Libertad Asuncion subject to international clearance and work permit. The 18-year-old, who already has 5 caps for his country, will cost £10.44m.

Porto have confirmed that they have reached an agreement to sell Fabio Vieira to Arsenal for an initial £31.5m.

Leeds United have signed midfielder Marc Roca from Bayern Munich for a fee of around £10m.

Southampton have finally attempted to strengthen the weakest part of their team with a double goalkeeper signing. Republic of Ireland international Gavin Bazunu has signed from Manchester City for a fee of around £12.6m, while Mateusz Lis has arrived on a free transfer from Altay. Saints fans will be happy to no longer have to suffer the torture of watching Alex McCarthy in goal for them!

Lecce have signed Assan Ceesay on a free transfer from FC Zurich as they prepare for their return to Serie A next season.

St Johnstone have made the double free transfer signing of Andrew Considine, from Aberdeen, and Drey Wright, from Hibernian.

Aberdeen have accepted an offer of an initial £4.5m fee for teenage right-back Calvin Ramsay from Liverpool, to become the Dons record sale if the move is completed.

Republic of Ireland international Darragh Lenihan has rejected a new contract with Blackburn Rovers and will leave the club this summer.

Hull City goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright has signed for Peterborough United on a season-long loan deal.

Cardiff City have signed goalkeeper Ryan Allsop on a free transfer from Derby County, who currently have just 5 players contracted to the club.

MK Dons will have to agree a compensation deal with Gillingham after they signed 22-year-old Jack Tucker from them.

Morecambe have signed Max Melbourne from Lincoln City on a free transfer. They have also signed former Manchester United youngster Donald Love on a free transfer from Manchester United-lite or, as they are more formally known, Salford City. Joining Salford is the son of Colin Hendry, Callum, on a free transfer from St Johnstone.

Sam Nicholson has returned to Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids after leaving Bristol Rovers.

Forest Green Rovers have made a triple signing. Kyle McAllister has arrived from St Mirren, while former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder David Davis has joined from Shrewsbury Town. Teenage keeper Alfie Burnett has been picked up from Rotherham United.

Celtic midfielder Luca Connell has signed for Barnsley on a free transfer. Also coming in is New Zealand goalkeeper Jamie Searle on a free transfer from Swansea City. Leaving the Tykes is forward Patrick Schmidt, who has returned to former club Admira Wacker in his native Austria.

Charles Vernam has signed for Lincoln City on a free transfer from Bradford City.

Ryan Williams has returned home to Australia to sign for Perth Glory for an undisclosed fee from Oxford United. Perth is the 28-year-old's home town, though his entire career has been spent playing in England.

Bradford City have picked up Harry Chapman on a free transfer from Blackburn Rovers.

Stockport County have paid an undisclosed fee to sign Joe Lewis from Torquay United. They have also got Akil Wright on a free transfer from York City.

Newport County duo Kevin Ellison and Dom Telford are to leave the club this summer. Ellison rejected an offer to stay in a coaching role and, despite being 43, has decided to continue playing. Telford was the Exiles and League Two's top scorer last season.

Grimsby Town have added Harrogate Town striker Danilo Orsi to their ranks for next season.

Stevenage have signed Jordan Roberts on a free from Motherwell.

Transferring from the SPFL refereeing ranks is Bobby Madden, who will be blowing his whistle in League One and Two in England following his relocation for work reasons. Scottish referees in the top flight are still part-time in the roles. It is possible that he could become a full-time referee by gaining promotion to the ranks of Championship referees in England.

Ben Fox has joined Northampton Town on a free transfer from Grimsby Town.

Rochdale left-back Max Clark has moved to Stevenage on a free transfer. Joining Dale is veteran midfielder Toumani Diagouraga on a free transfer from Morecambe.

Gillingham have signed Dominic Jefferies from Brentford.

After leaving Morecambe this summer, goalkeeper Kyle Letheren has signed for Hartlepool United as a player-coach.

Jake Clarke-Salter has moved to Queens Park Rangers on a free transfer from Chelsea.

Atalanta have paid £18m to sign Merih Demiral from Juventus.

A fee of £9.45m has been spent by Hellas Verona to sign Giovanni Simeone from Serie B side Cagliari.

Sassuolo have sent £10.8m to Penarol to sign Uruguayan striker Agustin Alvarez.

Lecce have released Brazilian goalkeeper Gabriel.

Kristian Pedersen has signed for 1.FC Koln on a free transfer from Birmingham City.

VfL Bochum have taken Jacek Goralski on a free transfer from Kairat Almaty.

Xaver Schlager has moved to RB Leipzig for a fee of £10.8m from VfL Wolfsburg.

Hammarby have sold teenage midfielder Williot Swedberg to Celta de Vigo for £4.5m.

Monza have paid £1.8m to sign young Bulgarian defender Valentin Antov from CSKA Sofia.

Osasuna have signed Ruben Pena on a free transfer from Villareal.

Daniel Bessa has been released by Hellas Verona.

Stade Reims have signed Emmanuel Agbadou from KAS Eupen.

FC Juarez have paid £3.15m to sign Darwin Machis from Granada.

Union Berlin have taken Lennart Grill on loan from Bayer Leverkusen.

Espanyol have released veteran defender Didac Vila.

Immanuel Pherai has been released by Borussia Dortmund.

FC Basel have signed Arnau Comas on a free transfer from Barcelona and teenage winger Anton Kade from Hertha Berlin.

Stefano Denswil has moved to Trabzonspor on a free transfer from Bologna.

Cardiff City have signed Mahlon Romeo from Millwall.

Real Sociedad have signed free agent full-back Mehdi Zeffane.

Alexander Schwolow has joined Schalke 04 on loan from Hertha Berlin.

Darmstadt 98 have taken Magnus Warming on loan from Torino.

Augsburg have released Jan Moravek and Alfred Finnbogason.

Bologna have released Federico Santander.

Austria Vienna have signed Christian Fruchtl from Bayern Munich and fellow Bayern keeper Ron-Thorben Hoffmann has joined Eintracht Braunschweig.

Brescia have signed Stefano Moreo from Empoli.

Former Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic has been released by Partizan Belgrade.

Eden Hazard's brother Kylian has dropped down to the Belgian 1B Pro League with RWD Molenbeek from Jupiler Pro League side Cercle Brugge on a free transfer.

Former Newcastle United youngster Haris Vuckic has moved to HNK Rijeka on a free transfer from Real Zaragoza.

Veteran winger Pablo Piatti has moved to Estudiantes on a free transfer from Elche.

VfL Wolfsburg have paid £2.25m to 1.FC Nuremberg for Kilian Fischer.

Veteran Spanish winger Jose Callejon has been released by Fiorentina.

Bologna have let Diego Falcinelli leave.

Mattia Destro has been released by Genoa.

Eintracht Frankfurt have loaned Ragnar Ache to Greuther Furth.

Juventus have released Federico Bernardeschi.

Stoke City have loaned Mario Vrancic to HNK Rijeka.

Cremonese have paid a £450,000 loan fee to take Johan Vasquez on loan from Genoa.

Lars Lukas Mai has joined FC Lugano from Bayern Munich.

Leeds United have released Laurens De Bock.

Lazio have released Jordan Lukaku.

Crystal Palace have let Martin Kelly and Jaroslaw Jach go.

Barcelona have released Jandro Orellana.

Clermont Foot have signed Neto Borges on a free transfer from KRC Genk.

1.FC Kaiserslautern have signed veteran goalkeeper Andreas Luthe from Union Berlin. Joining Union is Milos Pantovic on a free transfer from VfL Bochum.

Cagliari have released Keita Balde.

Injury Round Up

Managerial Changes

Just three matches into his time in charge of Egypt, Ehab Galal has been sacked as the head coach of the national side. Carlos Queiroz was sacked in April after the Afcon runners-up failed to make it to this winter's World Cup in Qatar. Galal suffered 2 defeats in a row, a shock 2-0 defeat to Ethiopia and a 4-1 friendly thrashing against South Korea without captain and talisman Mohamed Salah, and received his marching orders. His first match saw him play Salah for the full 90minutes despite carrying an injury, which then led to Salah being unavailable for the following pair of fixtures which led to Galal's firing. You have to wonder if Galal caused his own problems by refusing to send Salah for a scan ahead of the first game to see if it was even safe to play him or not, when his side are so reliant on him. It certainly seems to have backfired on him.

Omar Daf, the former Senegal international player, has quit his job as head coach of Sochaux to take over at Dijon instead. Daf had two stints as a player with Sochaux.

There have been changes in the coaching set-up at Celtic, with Stephen McManus departing the first team coaching set-up to work with the B team as he is replaced by Harry Kewell.

Blackpool have reappointed Michael Appleton as their head coach to replace Neil Critchley. Appleton was boss of the Tangerines for just 65 days in 2012-13 before he quit to take over at Blackburn Rovers.

Jason Pearce has retired from playing to take up a coaching position with Charlton Athletic. The 34-year-old was club captain but was not offered a new playing contract this summer when his contract expired. Instead of looking to continue to play elsewhere, he took up the club's offer to work with the Addicks' under-18 team.

Disciplinary Charges

UEFA have banned West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice over a rant at a referee following the Hammers Europa League semi-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. Rice was caught in a video accusing referee Jesus Gil Manzano of corruption after the match on 5th May. Rice shouted at Manzano in the video: "Ref, ref, it's so poor, all night, it's so bad. How can you be that bad, honestly? You've probably been paid." Rice was given a 2-match ban for the incident. The same game has also resulted in a 1-match ban for David Moyes, for being sent off during it and a £1,500 fine for the club because Hammers fans let off fireworks during the game in Frankfurt. Frankfurt have been fined £69,000 for a total of 6 offences relating to their fans at the match. They also have a suspended penalty of a game to be played behind closed doors, which is suspended for 2 years.

Following the sale of Chelsea to a consortium led by Todd Boehly club sponsors Three will resume their deal with the Londoners, which included shirt sponsorship. While the club was owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Three had asked for their logo to be removed from shirts following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite the request Chelsea had continued to play in shirts with the Three logo on the front for the rest of the season anyway as sanctions had meant that no new unsponsored shirts could be supplied to the club and taping over or painting out the logo was seen as an unworkable solution.

Hibernian defender Ryan Porteous has been fined £300 and ordered to pay a woman £200 compensation after throwing a plastic glass at her and causing "a small cut" to her head while on a night out. Hibs have stated that they have also fined Porteous the maximum allowable amount over the incident.

Former Russia Captain Speaks Out

Despite still living in Russia and admitting his words could see him jailed or even killed, a former captain of the Russian national team, Igor Denisov, has spoken out against his country's invasion of Ukraine. The interview, which was published on YouTube, saw Denisov saying: "Maybe they'll put me in jail or kill me for these words, but I'm telling it like it is." Denisov claimed to have written to Russia's president Vladimir Putin to ask him to stop the invasion, including offering to beg him to stop it all. The 38-year-old Denisov received 54 caps during his playing career, which ended in 2019 at Lokomotiv Moscow.

2026 Venues Announced

FIFA have revealed the 16 venues that the 2026 World Cup will be played in. The tournament will be split between 11 in the USA, 3 in Mexico and 2 more in Canada, making it the first time 3 countries have held the tournament, as well as the first to feature 48 teams. Mexico's Azteca Stadium will be the first venue to host matches in 3 separate World Cups. It is also notable that none of the US stadiums chosen are soccer-specific, all 11 are home to NFL teams in that peculiar version of 'football' that America plays, which involves almost no use of the foot.
Full list of venues:
USA Venues:
Atlanta - Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Boston - Gillette Stadium
Dallas - AT&T Stadium
Houston - NRG Stadium
Kansas City - Arrowhead Stadium
Los Angeles - SoFi Stadium
Miami - Hard Rock Stadium
New York/New Jersey - MetLife Stadium
Philadelphia - Lincoln Financial Field
San Francisco Bay Area - Levi's Stadium
Seattle - Lumen Field
Mexico venues:
Guadalajara - Estadio Akron
Mexico City - Estadio Azteca
Monterrey - Estadio BBVA
Canada venues:
Toronto - BMO Field
Vancouver - BC Place

Tebas Continues His Whines

The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, has continued his whine against state-funded clubs not called Real Madrid or Barcelona, with a declaration that actually his intentions are entirely altruistic and not about being upset that the best players are not automatically choosing Spain any more. According to Tebas, he is just looking to "defend" football because it is "in danger" and that is why La Liga made official complaints to UEFA about Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Tebas said of the complaints: "We're doing it to defend the football eco-system in Europe. We think European football is in danger. [We have] not been able to design a system to control the state-owned clubs. We've made official complaints about PSG for financial doping. Uefa have allowed losses because clubs reduced their turnover, but PSG increased their wage bill by an incredible amount during Covid. Their wages for 2021-22 were 600m euros. It is impossible. That is without including Mbappe. It is obvious they are not applying FFP [Financial Fair Play] rules. It is endangering the entire financial eco-system in Europe. At one point, Man City had 68% of their revenue from commercial income. Real Madrid was 54%. That is impossible. Man City as a brand is not worth that much. They were sanctioned but it was reversed. PSG is even more obvious. It is totally impossible. Contracts were inflated. The majority of people in football try to control their financial status. It is not a problem they are owned by the state. It is the financial side." If there is one thing for sure, he would certainly know all about financial doping, as Real Madrid have been the kings of it for most of their history, so you would expect him to be able to spot when someone else is doing it.

Prem 2 Reduces Age Limit

The Premier League 2, the competition introduced to replace the reserve leagues, is to be an under-21 competition next season after originally starting out as an under-23 competition. To make the change easier for teams to deal with, clubs will be able to use 2 more overage outfield players in their team each week. The limits were 3 outfield players over the age of 23 and one goalkeeper but will now be 5 over the age of 21 and one goalkeeper. I do question how that is going to improve the competitiveness of the league, which is the big issue.

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Written by Tris Burke June 18 2022 11:28:23