Football News: Review Of The Day 12th August 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

Hibernian have completed the signing of Ireland winger Daryl Horgan for an undisclosed fee from Preston North End.

Sporting Clube de Portugal have taken Stefano Sturaro on loan from Juventus for the season.

Leicester City's Algerian striker, who spent the end of last season on loan with Newcastle United in an injury-blighted spell, has joined Fenerbahce on loan for this season.

Nigerian midfielder Joel Obi has swapped one Serie A side for another as he makes a £1.8m move from Torino to Chievo Verona.

AC Milan's Portugese striker Andre Silva will spend this season on loan with Sevilla.

Nantes have released Burkina Faso striker Prejuce Nakoulma. The 31 year old forward has had his contract terminated following a string of injuries since joining the Ligue 1 club in January 2017.

Brechin Finally Win After 470 Days Of Waiting

Brechin City were relegated from the Scottish Championship last season after going the entire season without a single win. In fact they had played 38 matches since their last league win until Saturday. A 1-0 win over East Fife was their first win in league football since the 29th April 2017, when they again won 1-0, that time against Albion Rovers.

Pique Quits Internationals

World Cup and European Championship wins aside, Gerard Pique's time with the Spanish national side has been divisive amongst the crowd, who often heckle, jeer and whistle his every touch, due to his Catalonian roots. Since he publicly supported Catalonia's attempts to gain independence from Spain, those cat calls have grown to be the majority of the crowd against. Pique admitted back in 2016 that he had grown tired of the criticism and wanted "to be left in peace", signalling an intention to quit international football after the 2018 World Cup. The Barcelona centre back has now confirmed his decision and will no longer make himself available for selection. Pique said: "I spoke to Luis Enrique a few days ago. He called me and I told him the decision was taken a long time ago and that I had thought about it carefully. It was a beautiful time with the national team in which I had the chance to win the World Cup and the European Championship. Now I want to focus on Barca. I have a few years left here and I'm going to enjoy them a lot."

Sevilla Threaten Super Cup Withdrawal

The Spanish league places a restriction of just three non-EU players in each matchday squad but the Spanish Football Federation announced yesterday that they would not be applying that restriction to this season's Super Cup clash between Sevilla and Barcelona, as they classed the game as "not professional". For some reason, Sevilla are extremely upset over the decision and released a club statement which read: "Sevilla FC is surprised by the RFEF [Spanish football federation]'s statement 24 hours before the Super Cup. It has stated that as many non-EU players as desired can be registered. In their last notice for the 18-19 season, only three were due to be permitted, without exception. The club's legal department is studying the matter and should FC Barcelona submit a team with more than three non-EU players, it would present possible ground for withdrawal on account an improper line-up." Barcelona have travelled to Morocco, where the match is to be held, with 4 non-EU players in their squad, even though manager Ernesto Valverde has expressed his unhappiness with the rule change. Valverde said: "As for the Supercopa not being a professional competition, I do not know what to tell you. I think that Sevilla are professionals and we are professionals. With all the trouble we have had this week with non-EU squad members, they could have warned us before." There is only one thing that seems unprofessional about all this and that is the RFEF, who struggle to organise kick-off times for matches in advance, let alone a Super Cup in a foreign country.

Written by Tris Burke August 12 2018 09:53:14