Football News: Review Of The Day 22nd November 2018

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Review of the Day

Carrasco Faces Legal Issues

Belgium winger Yannick Carrasco's surprising move to China has not gone all that well on the pitch, his team Changchun Yatai were involved in a relegation battle, and off the pitch it has been even worse. The 25 year old was surprisingly left out of the Belgium squad for the November internationals, with Belgium just saying that there were passport problems with him. Carrasco has now explained on TV that he had clashed with team-mate Pengxiang Jin in training, "After a two-way battle, we had a brief verbal altercation that led to a minor injury to his nose," explained the former Atletico Madrid winger. Jin rejected an offer of 10,000 euros in compensation from Carrasco, as the 'minor' nose injury has been serious enough to keep him on the sidelines since the incident. The police have since got involved, which meant that Carrasco had to surrender his passport while he was being investigated.

O'Neill And Keane Finally Go

Football's most bizarre (and possibly most inept) managerial duo, Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane, have left the Republic of Ireland job (to the relief of most of Ireland). Ireland have been relegated from UEFA Nations League Group B4 without a single competitive win in 2018. With Keane too busy insulting players for missing training through injury, despite a fully fit Keane being happy to walk out on his country because he did not like the training facilities, it was bizarre that he had ever been offered a role with Ireland, especially considering how terrible his record in club management had been. What is even more bizarre is that O'Neill and Keane were only given a contract extension (and pay rise) in January. No wonder the FAI are skint. If Matt Doherty's words are to be believed, Keane's role was not even defined or obvious and O'Neill's tactics left most of the players confused, as few knew what they were meant to be doing. Judging by the way the team performed, it is difficult to argue with Doherty's words.

PFA Face Charity Commission Scrutiny

With PFA dictator Gordon Taylor facing a storm of criticism from within the PFA itself, including a letter calling for his resignation signed by over 300 members of the association, he is now facing scrutiny from charity watchdog the Charity Commission. The accounts of the PFA Charity have revealed staff costs of £4m, but given no details of where that went other than a not elsewhere in the accounts which states that "no salaries or wages have been paid during the year". When asked whether Taylor's over £2m a year salary was paid, either directly or indirectly through the charity fund, the PFA refused to answer. A spokesperson for the Charity Commission told the BBC: "We are aware of concerns regarding the expenditure of the Professional Footballers' Association Charity and we will be engaging with the trustees to establish the facts. Trustees should be able to demonstrate that all decisions around expenditure have been carefully considered in line with the best interests of their charity and those it is set up to help. The public rightly expect charitable funds to go to causes they are set up to support. As regulator we expect all charities to carefully steward funds in the best interests of their charity in order to maximise their benefit to society." I wonder if the PFA will just change the name to PFA 'Community Fund' to escape scrutiny, like the FA did when it was discovered the Charity Shield was not contributing a big enough percentage of its takings to charity to qualify as a charity event.

Pep Given Warning

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been given a warning by the FA after speaking about referee Anthony Taylor ahead of the Manchester Derby. Taylor, who should not really be refereeing matches involving Manchester or Merseyside teams as it is simply not fair on him and places far too much pressure on every decision he makes with him being from the area, was actually given backing by Pep, but managers are not permitted to even talk about refereeing appointments. You have to feel sorry for Taylor, he is being placed in an untenable position by his bosses and this is the second time a manager has been in trouble for discussing him ahead of a game, after Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho got into trouble for talking about Taylor ahead of a match against Liverpool.

Drogba Announces Retirement

Legendary Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba has announced his retirement at the age of 40. The former Chelsea, Marseille, Shanghai Shenhua and Galatasaray striker had spent the last few years in North American football with a spell at Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact followed by a spell as player-owner with Phoenix Rising of the United Soccer League. Drogba did not even make it into top flight football until he was 23 and French Ligue 1 side Guingamp signed him from Ligue 2's Le Mans in 2002.

Watford Forward Finally Gets Work Permit

Venezuela international Adalberto Penaranda has signed a new, 5-year, contract with Watford after finally getting his work permit. The 21 year old is locked in until 2023 and will now be available for first team football after a lengthy wait. He broke Lionel Messi's record for the youngest foreign player to score a brace in La Liga while on loan with Granada.

Written by Tris Burke November 22 2018 04:48:46