Football News: Review Of The Day 30th November 2021

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Major League Soccer's New England Revolution have given Brandon Bye a 3-year deal with a club option for a further year.

Welsh centre-back Brandon Cooper has signed a new contract with Swansea City which will expire in 2024, but has an option for a further year.

Stoke City have given Josh Tymon a new 3 and a half year deal.

Lecce's veteran forward Massimo Coda has signed an extension which runs until 2024.

Jordan James has signed his first professional contract with Birmingham City and the 17-year-old, who graduated from their academy, is tied to the Blues until 2024.

Also in MLS, Houston Dynamo have given Matias Vera a 2-year deal with a club option for a third year.

DC United have given Donovan Pines, Andy Najar, Tony Alfaro, Adrien Perez and Drew Skundrich 1-year contracts. Najar and Skundrich both have a club option for another year.

Transfers

AFC Wimbledon have re-signed free agent Albanian winger Egli Kare on a short-term contract. The 24-year-old has suffered with injury problems since leaving the Dons after initially coming through their academy system.

LA Galaxy have released Justin vam Steeg, club captain Jonathan dos Santos, Kai Koreniuk, Augustine Williams, Danilo Acosta and Oneil Fisher.

Injury Round-Up

Sunderland midfielder Luke O'Nien requires shoulder surgery. The 27-year-old will be out of action for the Mackems for at least 3 months.

Injury and a CV outbreak caused the abandonment of a match in the Portugese top-flight on Saturday. With 17 players unavailable due to CV, Belenenses kicked off the game with just 9 players on the pitch as the game was oddly not postponed. Things were so bad for Belenenses that one of their two goalkeepers was playing in defence. By half-time Benfica had racked up a 7-0 lead, completely unsurprisingly. Just 7 players were able to return for the second half and an injury almost immediately after the game kicked off again caused an abandonment.

Rochdale's experienced midfielder Jimmy Keohane is out for about 3 months with a broken foot.

Brazilian forward Neymar has been ruled out for 2 months with ankle ligament damage suffered against Saint-Etienne.

Managerial Changes

Manchester United have confirmed the appointment of Ralf Rangnick as interim coach. The 63-year-old rejected the chance to take up a similar role at Chelsea last season and fellow German Thomas Tuchel took over instead. Rangnick will take charge of United's first team until the end of the season and then move into a consultancy role for the next two years.

Stevenage have brought in Paul Tisdale as their new manager to replace Alex Revell, who was sacked on the 14th of November. Tisdale was second choice after an approach to Gillingham for Steve Evans was rejected.

FIFA has appointed 'normalisation' committees in both Chad and Guinea to run football in the African nations. Chad were only recently allowed back into international football following a ban for governmental interference. Both committees are there to oversee elections to choose new executive committees to run football in the long term. Guinea's committee was put in place after FIFA found "a series of irregularities" in their election process.

Disciplinary Charges

Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass has been offered a 1-match ban for being sent off at half-time in their defeat to Dundee United, despite it being the result of a decision that the officials agree was wrong. Glass was furious after referee Bobby Madden gave a yellow card to Funso Ojo after his momentum took him into the crowd where he was assaulted by a fan, who has since been charged with assault and banned from Tannadice.

The appeal Hibernian lodged against Christian Doidge's 2-game ban for a red card against Ross County has been rejected.

Police have begun an investigation into transfers at Juventus. They are looking into "revenues from players" registration rights between 2019 and 2021. The club's owner and chairman Andrea Agnelli, vice-president and former player Pavel Nedved and chief financial officer Stefano Cerrato are also being investigated as part of the probe. According to prosecutors, the investigation is looking into allegations that senior management at the club gave false information to investors and issued invoices for non-existent transactions.

Plymouth Argyle are investigating after their League One fixture with Wigan Athletic on Saturday was marred by a clash between fans of the two teams following a late winner by Wigan. A club statement read: "The club has launched an investigation into the events that occurred during our League One fixture against Wigan Athletic. A disturbance broke out in the Barn Park End during the closing stages of our 2-1 defeat on Saturday afternoon, and footage will be reviewed as a matter of urgency. Argyle is a family and fan-focused football club. Irrespective of the findings of the investigation, the club thoroughly condemns the motives of those who seek to cause trouble at Home Park, or elsewhere. We hold a zero-tolerance policy for this sort of behaviour, and swift and firm action will be taken against individuals found to have been responsible."

Nick Mwendwa, the president of Football Kenya Federation, has been charged with 4 counts of fraud. Mwendwa, and others, stand accused of taking around £300,000 from the federation.

Trannie Game Off

Tranmere Rovers home League Two match against Stevenage, that was meant to be played on Saturday, had to be postponed for safety reasons. The storm affecting parts of the UK caused damage at Prenton Park, even blowing part of the main stand's roof off. A club statement explained: "Unfortunately, today's game against Stevenage has had to be postponed. A small section of the main stand roof has been blown off and a significant amount of roof signage and guttering has been blown down. The SAG (Safety Advisory Group) have advised that it is not safe to proceed with the game until the roof has been properly inspected. Whilst this is a big disappointment, the safety of fans is of course everyone's primary concern."

Potter Questions Boos

Brighton & Hove Albion manager Graham Potter has hit out at fans for booing the team during their goalless draw with Leeds United. Brighton have never finished in the top half of the top flight in their history and are currently sat in 8th after a draw that was the result of multiple good chances missed, including a number of sitters that Neal Maupay managed to miss the goal altogether with, as well as the team hitting the woodwork 3 times. Potter said: "I am a little bit perplexed to the reaction in the crowd at the end because the performance was fantastic against a team that like to dominate possession, like to out-run you - they didn't do that today. They are entitled to their opinions but I disagree with them completely. We are sitting eighth in the Premier League but maybe I need a history lesson on this football club." The Seagulls are currently nine games without a win, mainly due to the lack of a goalscorer up front.

FIFA Trialling Semi-Automated Offside Calls

After already making a mess of the offside laws with their numerous changes, particularly the recent one to the officials to keep their flags down until play stops, FIFA are now moving to hand the decision making over to the clowns in VAR. The FIFA Arab Cup will be used to test the technology, which involves a number of cameras collecting data for every player 50 times a second. If the system believes it has seen an offside, it will alert VAR, who will then make the final call, no doubt involving wonky lines drawn across the wrong frame as usual.

Messi Yet Again

Somehow Paris Saint-Germain's Lionel Messi has managed to win the Ballon d'Or for the 7th time, despite a poor overall season. Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski must wonder what he has to do to win it, after last year's award was cancelled with him favourite. This year he came second, despite beating Messi to the title of best forward of the year. Just shows what utter cack these awards are when Lewandowski broke the all-time record for Bundesliga goals but still loses out.

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Written by Tris Burke November 30 2021 01:08:24