Football News: Palace Take A Big Chance On Out Of Contract Former Spurs Striker And More News

1. Transfer round up
Steve, Hangzhou Greentown to Yanbian Funde, £963,000
Hakan Cinemre, Fenerbahce to Gaziantepspor, on loan
Tino Costa, Genoa to Spartak Moscow, loan return
Matt Jones, Tondela to Belenenses, loan return
Erick Moreno, Real Valladolid to Braga, loan return
Lionel Enguene, Barcelona to Antalyaspor, free
Stephan Schrock, Greuther Furth to Cere-La Salle, on loan
Christian Bolanos, Saprissa to Vancouver Whitecaps, undisclosed fee
Rolando Bianchi, RCD Mallorca to Perugia, undisclosed fee
Yann Kermogant, Bournemouth to Reading, £455,000
Juan Ortiz, Huila to FC Dallas, undisclosed fee
Lucas Evangelista, Udinese to Panathinaikos, on loan
Karim Matmour, unattached to Huddersfield Town,
Alessio Cerci, AC Milan to Atletico Madrid, loan return
Michel, FC Dallas to Rayo OKC, free
Nicola Bellomo, Ascoli to Chievo Verona, loan return
Nicolas Spolli, Carpi to Chievo Verona, free
Markos Vellidis, PAS Giannina to PAOK Saloniki, £525,000
Anel Hadzic, Sturm Graz to Eskisehirspor, £210,000
Erick Moreno, Braga to Tondela, on loan
Elkeson, Ghangzhou Evergrande to Shanghai SIPG, £12.95m
Stefano Sabelli, Bari to Carpi, on loan (£210,000 fee)
Jaime Baez, Fiorentina to AS Livorno, on loan
Papy Djilobodji, Chelsea to Werder Bremen, on loan (£280,000 fee)
Mijo Caktas, Hajduk Split to Rubin Kazan, £700,000
Lex Immers, Feyenoord to Cardiff City, on loan
Tino Costa, Spartak Moscow to Fiorentina, on loan (£350,000 fee)
Dodo, Inter Milan to Sampdoria, on loan
Mauro Zarate, West Ham United to Fiorentina, £1.47m
Andres Schetino, CA Fenix to Fiorentina, £2.45m
Denys Boyko, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk to Besiktas, £2.31m
Jesus Fernandez, Levante to Granada, free
Geuvanio, Santos to Tianjin Quanjian, £7.7m
Kamil Wilczek, Carpi to Brondby, £158,000
Zdravko Kuzmanovic, FC Basel to Udinese, on loan
Francisco Rodriguez, VfL Wolfsburg to Arminia Bielefeld, on loan
Gary Hooper, Norwich City to Sheffield Wednesday, undisclosed fee
Jordan Loties, released by Osasuna
Alessio Cerci, Atletico Madrid to Genoa, on loan
Andres Schetino, Fiorentina to AS Livorno, on loan
Jonathan Williams, Crystal Palace to MK Dons, on loan
Chris Burke, Nottingham Forest to Rotherham United, on loan
Daniel Amartey, FC Copenhagen to Leicester City, £4.62m

2. Palace take a chance on Adebayor
With Crystal Palace in poor form recently and desperately in need of a striker, Alan Pardew has taken a risk and signed free agent Emmanual Adebayor, who has been out of football since September, when he was freed by Tottenham Hotspur. The Togo striker has been plagued by accusations of laziness as he moved around from Arsenal to Manchester City and then Spurs, but it has always been felt he makes an effort when he his contract is up for renewal. In that vein, perhaps giving him a deal that runs until the end of the season will pay off for Palace, who have not scored a goal in the league in their last five games.

 

3. Call it a hunch,
But it just feels like, for some reason, Jurgen Klopp was not too happy with Alberto Moreno as Liverpool made their way to the League Cup final on penalties, putting out Stoke City:

4. Hearts to clamp down on fans
Heart of Midlothian owner Ann Budge has vowed to 'robustly deal' with fans fighting and abusing others after the Edinburgh club was forced to pay £50,000 for extra police because of the behaviour of the fans. There might be worse to come for the club as it is the subject of an SPFL probe after a match delegate reported 'excessive verbal abuse' towards away manager Mixu Paatelainen during their 3-2 win over Dundee United. Rival fans fighting before and after the 6-0 win over Motherwell has led to the increased policing costs and Budge believes the fans are undoing the good work the club are doing in the community by their actions. "I cannot begin to tell you how angry this makes me, when we are working so hard to put the club back at the heart of the community," she said. "Instead of talking proudly about the team's superb performance, or indeed our supporters' unprecedented loyalty, I am instead having to hold meetings with the authorities regarding how we are going to address this behaviour problem. Allowing a tiny minority of supporters to bring the club's reputation into disrepute is something we will not tolerate. We will be clamping down on supporters who behave unacceptably. This will mean more stringent checks and more surveillance both inside and outside the stadium."

 

5. Irish get extra Euro 2016 tickets
The Republic of Ireland was overwhelmed with ticket applications for their group games at Euro 2016, with 275,000 applications received for their three Group E games in the summer. UEFA have granted the FAI a further 6,502 tickets, taking the total available to 35,502. New allocations:
Ireland v Sweden: 16,087 (3,087 up)
Belgium v Ireland: 7,095 (1,095 up)
Italy v Ireland: 9,320 (2,320 up)
As well as these, the FAI have a further 2,000 tickets per game which will be held back, for loyal fans who miss out in the original application.

6. Belgian joins a Galaxy of stars
Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy have used 'Targeted Allocation Money' (TAM) to sign Belgium international Jelle van Damme. Van Damme becomes Galaxy's seventh signing of the offseason and will be placed on their roster as an international player. They now have 26 of their 28 spaces possible, under MLS rules, filled. "Jelle is an experienced, talented defender who will strengthen our back line," Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said in a statement. "He joins our team with a wealth of experience playing at the highest levels of competition in the world. We look forward to adding him to our roster." The 32 year old Belgian has played for clubs such as Ajax, Southampton, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Werder Bremen, RSC Anderlecht and latterly as captain of Standard Liege.

 

7. FIFA confirm presidential candidates
FIFA have confirmed the five men who will be standing for election on 26th February as candidates to replace Sepp Blatter as president:
Prince Ali bin al Hussein, a member of the Jordanian ruling family and very much involved in the deal which took the World Cup to Qatar in such shady circumstances that it led to the huge corruption scandal.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa, the current head of the Asian confederation, also involved in the Qatar shady dealings as well as being accused of gross violations of human civil rights during the 'Arab Spring' when popular uprisings in his home country of Bahrain were brutally put down. He also used his power as then head of the Bahraini FA to punish clubs whose players took part in the uprising in direct violation of FIFA's statutes against political interference in the sport.
Gianni Infantino, who campaigns on a platform of change, but has been heavily involved in FIFA during the scandal, with close ties to disgraced former bosses Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter.
Tokyo Sexwale, another one linked to past corruption, with a list of allegations that would require many pages merely to just list them.
Jerome Champagne who was Sepp Blatter's advisor for most of his time in office, during the scandals in particular.
So there we have it, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

8. Roma get El Shaarawy
At one time half-Italian, half-Egyptian forward Stephan El Shaarawy was one of the hottest properties in football. In 2011 he was snapped up by AC Milan from Genoa for nearly £11m, and the future looked bright. Fast forward a few years and a slump in form, unsuccessful loan spells with AS Monaco and the 23 year old is no longer a bright light, he is seen as an unfulfilled promise. So much so that he has just joined AS Roma on loan with an option to buy, having seen Monaco turn him down in similar circumstances. "I've joined Roma to show what I can do - to myself, the coach and the Italian game as a whole," El Sharaawy told Roma TV. "I hope to repay the faith the club is showing in me and therefore I want to give 100 per cent when I play to try and achieve great things here." All a far cry from the player who, in 2012, became Milan's youngest ever Champions League goalscorer.

 

9. Chelsea facing FIFA investigation

#Breaking via @mattmcgeehan Here's Bertrand Traore playing for Chelsea U18s at 16, apparently contrary to FIFA rule pic.twitter.com/qvEjGp6ITy

— PA Sport (@pasport) January 26, 2016

That picture has emerged recently which shows Chelsea contravening FIFA rules, with regards to players under the age of 18. Now 20 years old, the above picture was taken when Bertrand Traore was just 16 and played against Arsenal in an U18s friendly match, despite only being 16 at the time. FIFA's laws of the game prohibit players under the age of 18 moving to a club in a different country, and the club only officially signed him in January 2014, the first transfer window after he turned 18, because of that ruling. Chelsea told the Press Association in a statement: "Bertrand Traore was registered by Chelsea FC in January 2014 in compliance with FA and Premier League Rules. Prior to that date, he was party to an option agreement which enabled the club to acquire his registration in January 2014. The option agreement was registered with, and approved by, both The FA and the Premier League." It was this rule that Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona fell foul of resulting in transfer bans.

10. Talisca's beauty from the edge of the box
The Benfica player scores a lovely goal to stretch the lead to 5-1 against Moreirense:

Written by Tris Burke January 27 2016 07:47:21