Football News: Review Of The Day 1st July 2022

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Review of the Day

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Contracts

Morecambe have given forward Arthur Gnahoua a new 1-year deal.

Gareth Ainsworth, the Wycombe Wanderers head coach, has signed a 1-year contract extension. Ainsworth took charge there in September 2012.

Olympique Lyonnais have given Brazilian winger Tete a 1-year contract.

Torben Rhein has signed a new 1-year deal with Bayern Munich.

Elche's experienced Argentine Javier Pastore, formerly of PSG, has signed a 1-year deal.

Real Zaragoza youngster Ivan Azon has signed a 3 year contract.

Fiorentina's Riccardo Saponara has signed a 1-year deal.

Ian Harkes has signed up for next season with Dundee United.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has agreed a new contract which will expire in 2025.

Southampton goalkeeper Willy Caballero has signed a 1 year contract extension.

Aston Villa youngster Lamare Bogarde has signed a new long-term deal.

Jack Hamilton has signed a contract extension until 2024 with Livingston.

Technical Area Director Paolo Maldini and Sport Director Frederic Massara have signed 2-year deals with AC Milan.

Marco Friedl has extended his contract with Werder Bremen.

Transfers

Manchester United have agreed a deal to sign Tyrell Malacia from Feyenoord.

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of Brazil international forward Richarlison from Everton for £52.2m.

Celtic have completed the permanent signing of Jota for an undisclosed fee of £6.75m from Benfica. The Portugese had spent last season on loan there and helped Celtic to regain the SPFL title.

Paris Saint-Germain have signed former Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee Vitinha on a permanent deal from Porto for £37.35m.

Sunderland have signed Daniel Ballard for an undisclosed fee of £2.07m from Arsenal.

Lincoln City have sold left-back Cohen Bramall to Rotherham United for the obligatory undisclosed fee.

Charlton Athletic have signed Connor McGrandles on a free transfer from Lincoln City.

Reece Brown has returned to Forest Green Rovers on a free transfer from Huddersfield Town.

Shrewsbury Town have added Aiden O'Brien on a free transfer from Portsmouth.

Cambridge United have signed Saikou Janneh from Bristol City.

Sheffield Wednesday defender Ciaran Brennan has joined Swindon Town on loan for the season.

Sutton United have signed Kwame Thomas from Wrexham and Jack Rose from Walsall, both on free transfers.

Tranmere Rovers have paid an undisclosed fee for defender Neill Byrne from Hartlepool United.

Liverpool youngster James Balagizi has joined Crawley Town on loan. Creepy have also signed Dion Conroy on a free transfer from Swindon Town.

Yet another undisclosed fee has been paid to take Omar Bogle to Newport County from Hartlepool United.

Stevie Mallen has signed on a free for Salford City from Yeni Malatyaspor.

Gillingham have signed Jake Turner on a free transfer from Newcastle United.

Jon Nolan has signed for Tranmere Rovers on a free from Bristol Rovers.

Former Tottenham Hotspur youngster Anthony Georgiou has signed for Leyton Orient. He had been on trial at Orient in February after being released by Cyrpiot side AEL Limassol.

Silvester van der Water has left Major League Soccer's Orlando City to sign for SC Cambuur of the Dutch Eredivisie.

Hertha Berlin have released Ishak Belfodil.

Hull City have completed the signing of Ozan Tufan from Fenerbahce.

Stade Brestois have paid £315,000 for the signing of Noah Fadiga from Heracles Almelo.

Monza have spent £3.6m on young Italian defender Andrea Carboni from Cagliari.

Akim Zedadka has made a free transfer move to LOSC Lille from Clermont Foot.

Olympique Marseille has paid £4.95m for Souleymane Isaak Toure from AC Le Havre.

VfB Stuttgart have sold Philipp Forster to VfL Bochum for £270,000.

Southampton have released Shane Long.

FC Basel have signed Hugo Vogel from Paris Saint-Germain.

St Johnstone have released Zander Clark.

Former Newcastle United and Spurs midfielder Moussa Sissoko has signed for Nantes from Watford.

Lazio have paid £6.75m for Marcos Antonio from Shakhtar Donetsk.

Thijs Dallinga has made a £2.25m move to Toulouse from Excelsior.

Hajduk Split have signed Lovre Kalinic on a free transfer from Aston Villa.

CJ Egan-Riley has moved to Burnley on a free transfer from Manchester City.

HNK Rijeka have signed Anton Kresic from Atalanta.

Ousmane Dembele has left Barcelona.

Clermont Foot have signed Maxime Gonalons on a free transfer from Granada.

Manchester City have signed Stefan Ortega on a free transfer from Arminia Bielefeld.

Benfica goalkeeper Mile Svilar has moved to AS Roma on a free transfer.

Bologna have signed Charalampos Lykogiannis on a free transfer from Cagliari.

Ange Chibozo has moved to Amiens on loan from Juventus.

Inter Milan have signed former Arsenal and Manchester United man Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Roma on a free. Also joining Inter on a free is Andre Onana from Ajax.

Saad Aguzoul has been released by LOSC Lille.

Salvi Sanchez has moved to Rayo Vallecano on a free transfer from Cadiz.

Getafe have signed Jaime Seoane on a free from SD Huesca.

Austrian Bundesliga side Austria Lustenau have signed Torben Rhein on loan from Bayern Munich.

Stefan Strandberg has been released by Salernitana.

Corentin Tolisso has moved to Olympique Lyonnais on a free transfer from Bayern Munich.

Sampdoria have released Albin Ekdal and veteran forward Sebastian Giovinco.

Francesco Bardi has been let go by Bologna.

Udinese forward Ilija Nestorovski has been released.

Spanish defender Patric has left Lazio at the end of his contract.

Empoli have released Riccardo Fiamozzi.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's contract with AC Milan has ended.

Spezia have released Jacopo Sala.

Torino have released Andrea Belotti.

Club legend forward Dries Mertens has left Napoli to the chagrin of the club's fans.

AC Milan defender Alessio Romagnoli is now out of contract.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Sergio Romero has been released by Venezia.

Sevilla have released Javi Diaz.

Being the son of the legendary Zinedine 'Zizou' Zidane has not helped Luca Zidane as he has been released by Rayo Vallecano.

Elche have let Guido Carillo go.

Savio has joined Troyes for a fee of £5.85m from Atletico Mineiro.

Lazio have taken Matteo Cancellieri on loan from Hellas Verona.

Oscar Melendo has been released by Espanyol.

Former Arsenal treatment table star Jack Wilshere has been released by Aarhus.

Spezia have paid a fee of £2.43m to sign Kevin Agudelo from Genoa.

Atalanta forward Roberto Piccoli has moved to Hellas Verona on loan.

Sime Vrsaljko has been released by Atletico Madrid.

Young midfielder Kristjan Asllani has moved to Inter Milan on loan from FC Empoli after they paid a £3.6m loan fee.

Union Berlin have spunked £5.4m on Wankdorf-based Young Boys forward Jordan Siebatcheu.

Fiorentina have loaned Christian Dalle Mura to SPAL.

Genoa have paid £1.35m for Massimo Coda from Lecce.

Thomas Rincon has been released by Torino.

VfL Bochum have released Herbert Bockhorn and Danny Blum.

David Otto has moved to St Pauli from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Former Brighton & Hove Albion winger Joze Izquierdo has been released by Club Brugge.

Malmo FF have paid £900,000 for Mahame Siby from Racing Strasbourg.

Former Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen has been released by Stoke City.

Fiete Arp has joined Holstein Kiel on a free transfer from Bayern Munich.

West Ham United have signed Patrick Kelly from Coleraine.

Liverpool goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga has joined Macclesfield on loan for the season.

Crystal Palace have confirmed the signing of Sam Johnstone on a free transfer from West Bromwich Albion.

Matteo Guendouzi has signed for Olympique Marseille on a permanent deal from Arsenal after spending last season on loan there.

Dean McMaster has joined Airdrie on loan from St Mirren.

Rangers have signed Archie Stevens from AFC Wimbledon.

Real Betis have signed Luiz Henrique from Fluminese for over £10m, but the Brazilian club retain a 15% sell-on clause.

Swansea City have signed Remy Mitchell on a free transfer from Arsenal.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has had his contract terminated with Lazio by his own request and left the club.

Napoli have signed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Dinamo Batumi for around £8m.

Arsenal have released Jonathan Dinzeyi, Joel Lopes and Jordan McEneff.

Injury Round Up

New Arsenal signing Fabio Vieira has been pictured wearing a protective boot, sparking fears of an injury.

Another new signing to have injury worries is Werder Bremen's Dikeni Salifou, who picked up a muscle injury in the first pre-season friendly and has been ruled out for several weeks.



Job Changes

The Egyptian FA have appointed former English Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg as head of their newly created refereeing committee. Egypt has suffered with heavy criticism of the standad of local referees, with teams even threatening to withdraw in protest at the perceived poor decisions made. Clattenburg has worked in China and as head of refereeing in Saudi Arabia since retiring as a Premier League referee.

Claude Makalele, the former Real Madrid and Chelsea midfielder, is putting himself forward to take the role of DR Congo's head coach. Previous incumbent Hector Cuper was sacked last month.

Bristol City midfielder Andy King has signed to become a player-coach at the club for next season.

Former Everton player John Ebbrell has become the club's Player Development Senior Coach, a newly created position. Ebbrell was previously Under-23s assistant manager and Head of Academy Coaching.

Luca Gotti has been appointed as the new head coach of Spezia, replacing Thiago Motta.

Jorge Sampaoli has quit as head coach of Olympique Marseille, despite leading the club into the Champions League.

Ahead of the expected appointment of Christophe Galtier, Paris Saint-Germain have announced that Mauricio Pochettino's contract has been terminated.

Disciplinary Charges

Chelsea's new owners have launched an external investigation into alleged workplace bullying under the previous regime following a New York Times article which alleged conditions in one department led to "toxic workplace culture". The new board of the club released a statement which read: "The club's new board believes strongly in a workplace environment and corporate culture that empowers its employees and ensures they feel safe, included, valued and trusted. Initial steps have been taken by the new owners to instil an environment consistent with our values." Sounds like a clear dig at the previous board and suggestion there were internal problems to me.

Leeds United and Burnley have dropped their threat of legal action against Everton and the Premier League. The pair were upset after Everton's accounts revealed losses of £372m over three years, much more than the Premier League allowance of £105m under FFP regulations. Somehow Everton managed to claim that they lost £170m due to Covid-19, much more than any other club, and that, along with allowable deductions for academy and women's teams and the new stadium saw them 'comply' with profit and sustainability rules. The sale of Richarlison to Spurs before the end of the regulations accounting period will help them balance the books for the next season.

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu was shown to have used social media company I3 Ventures to pay social media companies and journalists to tarnish the reputations of former players, other club members and presidential candidates that he felt were against him. Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's law enforcement agency, have claimed that he also paid media company Nicestream to destroy his opponents' reputations and protect his. On top of that Bartomeu paid off journalists to do the same and used the club to falsify and hide documents regarding his wrongdoing according to the investigation.

AC Milan and four of its players have been fined by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for insults towards arch rivals Inter Milan at their Serie A title-winning parade. Milan itself was fined 12,000 euros, which Theo Hernandez, Mike Maignan and Sandro Tonali were all given 4,000 euro fines apiece. Rade Krinic was given a 5,000 euro fine.

Semi-Automated Offside

FIFA's head of refereeing, the GOAT of all referees, Pierluigi Collina has confirmed that the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar will make use of semi-automated technology to speed up offside decisions. The system was trialled at the Arab Cup and Club World Cup recently, and it is suggested that it reduced the time taken to make an offside decision from 70 to 25 seconds with VAR, instead of the microsecond it used to take without VAR, when the linesman put his flag up or left it down. The system uses a sensor within the ball to judge the kickpoint and 12 dedicated cameras on the roof of each stadium to track the ball and 29 points on each player to calculate their exact position 50 times a second.

CAF Awards Nominees

The Confederation for African Football has announced the nominees for its annual awards:

Player of the Year (Men)
Riyad Mahrez (Algeria & Manchester City)
Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso & Aston Villa)
Blati Toure (Burkina Faso & Pyramids)
Edmund Tapsoba (Burkina Faso & Bayer Leverkusen)
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (Cameroon & Napoli)
Karl Toko Ekambi (Cameroon & Lyon)
Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon & Al Nassr)
Youssouf M'Changama (Comoros & Guingamp)
Franck Kessie (Ivory Coast & AC Milan)
Sebastien Haller (Ivory Coast & Ajax)
Mohamed Abdelmonem (Egypt & Al Ahly)
Mohamed Elneny (Egypt & Arsenal)
Mohamed Salah (Egypt & Liverpool)
Mohamed El Shenawy (Egypt & Al Ahly)
Musa Barrow (The Gambia & Bologna)
Naby Keita (Guinea & Liverpool)
Aliou Dieng (Mali & Al Ahly)
Hamari Traore (Mali & Rennes)
Yves Bissouma (Mali & Tottenham Hotspur)
Achraf Hakimi (Morocco & Paris St-Germain)
Sofiane Boufal (Morocco & Angers)
Yahya Jabrane (Morocco & Wydad Athletic Club)
Yassine Bounou (Morocco & Sevilla)
Moses Simon (Nigeria & Nantes)
Edouard Mendy (Senegal & Chelsea)
Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal & Napoli)
Nampalys Mendy (Senegal & Leicester City)
Sadio Mane (Senegal & Bayern Munich)
Saliou Ciss (Senegal & Nancy)
Ali Maaloul (Tunisia & Al Ahly)

Young Player of the Year (Men)
Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso & Lorient)
Karim Konate (Cote d'Ivoire & ASEC/RB Salzburg)
Jesus Owono (Equatorial Guinea & Alaves)
James Gomez (The Gambia & AC Horsens)
Kamaldeen Sulemana (Ghana & Rennes)
Ilaix Moriba Kourouma (Guinea & Valencia)
El Bilal Toure (Mali & Reims)
Akinkunmi Amoo (Nigeria & FC Copenhagen)
Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal & Metz)
Hannibal Mejbri (Tunisia & Manchester United)

Coach of the Year (Men)
Kamou Malo (Burkina Faso)
Amir Abdou (Comoros)
Carlos Quieroz (Egypt)
Pitso Mosimane (Al Ahly)
Tom Saintfiet (The Gambia)
Florent Ibenge (RS Berkane)
Vahid Halilhodzic (Morocco)
Walid Regragui (Wydad Athletic Club)
Aliou Cisse (Senegal)
Mandla Ncikazi (Orlando Pirates)

National Team of the Year (Men)
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Comoros
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
The Gambia
Mali
Morocco
Senegal
Tunisia

Baggies Accounts Reveal Loan To Owner

West Bromwich Albion's latest accounts have revealed that the chairman loaned £4.95m to a company he owned from the club's coffers. Guochuan Lai, who is also majority owner of the Baggies, lent the money to help it survive the pandemic. Lai said: "The club's annual accounts for the 2020-21 season detail a loan to Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited, a related party to me. Regrettably, the Covid-19 pandemic saw my international businesses suffer, particularly those in the hospitality and entertainment sector, which experienced an almost complete closure for long periods, and in March 2021 I received a loan from the football club. he upturn in the global economy has brought with it greater positivity and I can confirm I will repay the loan in full, with interest, by the end of the current calendar year and the funds will be available to the club during the January 2023 transfer window. I remain committed to returning the football club to the Premier League and I am confident we will be able to compete for promotion from the Championship this coming season." Lai said that the money will be back in the club's accounts by 31st December, with £50,000 interest.

Pique Wanted Match Moved

Barcelona's Spanish international defender Gerard Pique had asked the president of the Spanish FA, Luis Rubiales, to move a Spain match in November 2019 so that he could attend a Davis Cup match in Madrid with his then-girlfriend Shakira. Pique is president of Kosmos Tennis, the company that runs the Davis Cup along with the ITF. The former Manchester United centre-back said to Rubiales: "Rubi, we have to speak about an issue that is very important for me and you need to do me this favour one way or another. I will explain. I can see that there is a match, which is Spain-Romania on Monday the 18th of November. Monday the 18th of November the Davis Cup starts in Madrid, as well. Shakira will do the inauguration, my partner will sing, we will put on a insane show, in the afternoon there will be matches. Of course, if that same match between Spain and Romania at the Wanda is also on, we are cannibalising each other, we ruin each other. I don't know what the calendar before is, I don't know if it can be moved to Sunday, which would be perfect. I don't know if you play Friday or Thursday... Let's look at the calendar issue, but I know that you still haven't started selling tickets and it would be possible to move it, therefore, let's look at (it)." The Spain fixture went ahead as planned, despite Rubiales telling Pique he would have a look to see it was possible to move the match, which was a European Championship qualifier against Romania. Spain won the match 5-0, but Pique was not in the squad.

Barca Confirm Sale

Barcelona have confirmed that they have sold 10% of their La Liga TV rights for the next 25 years to a US private equity firm called Sixth Street for nearly £200m. Sixth Street have already invested well over £300m in Real Madrid's stadium redevelopment. They are also considering selling a further 15% later this summer. The club's general assembly gave the board permission to sell up to 49% of the merchandising and sponsorship.

Ramos And Rubiales Talks Continue

Sergio Ramos's time as captain of Real Madrid did not just see him beg Luis Rubiales for help to win the Ballon d'Or, he also wrote to him to complain about refereeing decisions. Ramos complained that the referees favoured Barcelona while whining about a decision given against Leganes. An incident on 20th January 2019 raised his ire, when Barca faced Leganes and their second goal, by Luis Suarez, in a 3-1 win was controversial as Suarez appeared to have caught the Leganes goalkeeper with his boot in the build up. The following day Ramos wrote to complain: "Rubi, we are starting to become very worried by the VAR issue, above all with Barca. It's an absolute disgrace and the referees don't have the nerve for it. Did you see the foul from Suarez on the goalkeeper for the 2-1? It's a joke."

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Written by Tris Burke July 01 2022 19:12:22