Football News: Review Of The Day 23rd December 2020

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Review of the Day

Contracts

Transfers

West Ham United have completed the signing of Danish centre-back Frederik Alves from Silkeborg for a fee of just over £1m. The 21 year old Denmark U21 international will join the Hammers on January 2.

Pep Guardiola has ruled out new signings for Manchester City in January. When asked if the Cityzens would be making new signings in January, Guardiola replied: "No I don't think so because the economic situation around world is what it is. All the clubs struggle - we are not an exception."

In Major League Soccer American left-back Hector Jimenez has moved to Austin FC from Columbus Crew on a free transfer.

Bayer Leverkusen's twins Lars and Sven Bender are to retire from playing at the end of the season. The 31 year old duo said in a joint statement: "After much consideration and countless thoughts about our future, we finally decided that we would not be continuing our journey with Bayer Leverkusen. Ultimately, this was not a decision against the club, but in favor of our health and our family. We have come to the realization that it will be difficult to continue playing football at this level beyond the summer. We are finding it increasingly hard to consistently deliver, given all the pain and physical problems which we are suffering from more and more."

Red Star Belgrade have signed Inter Milan's French winger Axel Bakayoko. Bakayoko started out at French club Red Star FC (no connection between the two Red Stars) before joining Inter's youth ranks over 6 years ago. He managed just one first team appearance for Inter.

Also in MLS football, New England Revolution have signed Colombian defender Christian Mafla from Atletico Nacional in Colombia.

Injury Round-Up

Managerial Changes

Disciplinary Charges

Bournemouth midfielder Jefferson Lerma has been charged with biting in the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on 3rd November. Lerma has denied the allegation and the Cherries intend to request a personal hearing.

Napoli's appeal against a point deduction for not appearing for their Serie A game against Juventus in October has been successful. Juve were originally awarded a 3-0 win after Napoli were ordered not to travel by their local health authority following a couple of positive covid tests. Serie A refused their request to postpone the game but their decision has now been overturned by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the game will have to be rescheduled.

FIFA has lodged a criminal complaint against former FIFA president Sepp Blatter over the finances of a museum in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA say that Blatter's administration spent £420m to renovate "a building that the organisation doesn't own. Given the massive costs associated with this museum, as well as the general way of working of the previous Fifa management, a forensic audit was conducted in order to find out what really happened here. That audit revealed a wide range of suspicious circumstances and management failures, some of which may be criminal in nature and need to be properly investigated by the relevant authorities. We came to the conclusion that we had no choice other than to report the case to state prosecutors, not least because the current management of Fifa also has fiduciary responsibilities to the organisation and we intend to live up to them, even if those before us dismally failed to."

AC Milan striker Rafael Leao will be forced to give up part of his salary until former club Sporting CP receive the 16.5m euros compensation that the Court of Arbitration for Sport have ordered him to pay for unlawfully terminating his contract.

Goretzka Speaks Out Against German Far Right Political Party

Bayern Munich midfielder Leon Goretzka has hit out at German political party AfD for their antisemitic views. Goretzka said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper: "When a party is supported and led by Holocaust revisionists - look at the "speck of bird poop on German history" comment from [former AfD co-chief] Alexander Gauland - then the mask falls by itself." Goretzka has been spending time with holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander, after reading her autobiography, and said of the 99 year old: "Despite all the suffering she experienced, she has remained such a positive person. What Mrs. Friedländer lived through is unimaginable. She even brought her Jewish star with her. That's the sort of moment where you truly freeze. We have to be the ones who make sure that such a thing never happens again." Goretzka admits he has received abuse from AfD supporters for his public stance but says, "if anything, hateful comments will just make me position myself even more clearly."

Written by Tris Burke December 23 2020 06:14:38