Football News: Review Of The Day 17th December 2019

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Celtic's Nir Bitton has signed a 3 and a half year deal with the Scottish champions.

Transfers

Serie A side Lecce have signed free agent right-back Giulio Donati on a free.

Waterford winger Zack Elbouzedi has signed for Lincoln City for an undisclosed fee. The 21 year old will join on 1st January 2020.

Former Arsenal, Aston Villa, Fulham and Rangers defender Philippe Senderos has retired at the age of 34.

Injury Round-Up

Lyon forward Memphis Depay will miss out on Euro 2020 with Netherlands as he has been ruled out for six months with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Stags Sack Dempster

Mansfield Town have sacked their manager John Dempster after six matches without a win. They have not won a league game since 26th October. Jamie McGuire, who was an academy coach, has been placed in caretaker charge.

Boro Bring Back Westley. Again

Graham Westley has been appointed for his fourth spell as Stevenage manager, with the Hertfordshire side in 23rd place in League Two. Dino Maamria had been sacked back in September and former England Women's head coach Mark Sampson had been in caretaker charge since then. Sampson will now revert to a first team coach role. Club chairman Phil Wallace said: "Given our current league position, this is not the time for us to experiment with managers. I need someone I trust and I trust Graham. Mark has made us hard to beat, but we have not won the points needed to climb the table, so it is time to introduce someone with experience into the mix. I obviously have a high regard for Graham, having employed him three times before. I am banking that his maturity and evolution has continued over the four years since he was here last and we can establish a formidable partnership again."

EFL Appoint New CEO

Burnley's chief executive David Baldwin has been named as the English Football League's successor to Shaun Harvey as EFL CEO. Baldwin said: "The role of chief executive at the EFL is an exciting opportunity that I could not turn down. I am looking forward working with the clubs, growing the competitions and ensuring we have a successful and sustainable league in the future."

Former Assistant Manager Convicted Of Accepting A Bribe

Tommy Wright, the former assistant manager at Barnsley, has been convicted of accepting a bribe of £5,000 to leak commercial information about players. Wright was caught during a newspaper's undercover probe into football corruption in 2016. A pair of football agents, Giuseppe Pagliara and Dax Price, were convicted of two counts of paying and facilitating a bribe. Pagliara and Price were also breaking football rules by acting as third-party owners of players.

Nazi Chants See Spanish Game Called Off

A match in the Spanish second tier was abandoned at half-time after "grave insults and threats" were made towards Albacete's former Rayo forward Roman Zozulya. The Ukraine international had joined Rayo on loan back in 2017, only for the deal to be cancelled within hours after fans turned up to training with a banner which read that this was "not a place for Nazis". During the game with Albacete, Rayo fans were chanting about Zozulya being a Nazi, despite the player always denying links with far-right groups, and both teams asked the referee to abandon the match. An Albacete statement read: "With the support of Rayo Vallecano, Albacete and La Liga, the referee has suspended the game in Vallecas. This decision was taken with one objective, which is to safeguard the values of our competition and the sport which we all love." Zozulya wrote an open letter to Rayo fans in 2017 in which he claimed the links with a far-right movement in his home country were simply the results of a misunderstanding with a journalist.

PSV Sack Van Bommel

PSV Eindhoven have sacked their head coach Mark van Bommel after their won just twice in their last eight Eredivisie matches. Van Bommel had replaced Phillip Cocu in June 2018 and leaves with PSV 4th, 10 points behind leaders Ajax. A PSV statement read: "The continuous series of negative results is a decline too large and unworthy of PSV."

FIFA Chase Blatter And Platini For Money

Football's world governing body FIFA has begun legal action against its former president and vice-president in an attempt to recover more than £1.5m. The then president Sepp Blatter had transferred two million Swiss frances to then vice-president Michel Platini in January 2011.

Europa League Draw

Wolves v Espanyol
Sporting Lisbon v Istanbul Basaksehir
Getafe v Ajax
Bayer Leverkusen v Porto
Copenhagen v Celtic
APOEL v Basel
Cluj v Sevilla
Olympiakos v Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar v LASK
Club Bruges v Manchester United
Ludogorets Razgrad v Inter Milan
Eintracht Frankfurt v Red Bull Salzburg
Shakhtar Donetsk v Benfica
Wolfsburg v Malmo
Roma v Ghent
Rangers v Braga

Serie A Launch Bizarre Anti-Racism Campaign

Serie A have decided to launch an anti-racism campaign by producing posters showing three monkeys with painted faces. The posters say "No To Racism" above the three monkeys in a bizarre choice for a country in which numerous black players face monkey chants on a regular basis.

Champions League Draw

Borussia Dortmund v Paris St-Germain
Real Madrid v Manchester City
Atalanta v Valencia
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
Chelsea v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Juventus
Tottenham v RB Leipzig
Napoli v Barcelona

UEFA Charges

Paris Saint-Germain have been charged with setting off of fireworks and blocked stairways, while Galatasaray have been charged with setting off of fireworks, throwing of objects, act of damages and improper conduct of the team after their Champions League meeting on 11th December.

Olympique Lyonnais face charges of insufficient protection of the playing area, throwing of objects, stairways blocked and use of laser pointer from their Champions League match with RB Leipzig.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen have been charged with insufficient protection of the playing area and Juventus have been charged with late kick-off, late kick-off for the coach Mr Sarri and field invasion by supporters.

Bayern Munich are charged with an illicit banner and blocked stairways from their match with Tottenham Hotspur.

Romania have been fined 12,750 euros for setting off fireworks, the same amount for throwing of objects and a further 15,000 euros for an illicit banner and chants from their game against Sweden. A further charge of racist behavious against them was dropped.

Lazio's match against Celtic has led to Lazio being fined 2,500 euros for setting off fireworks and 6,750 for throwing of objects. Celtic have been fined 16,000 euros for setting off fireworks.

Written by Tris Burke December 16 2019 20:06:39