Football News: Review Of The Day 9th November 2022

Review of the Day

Contracts

MLS franchise FC Dallas have given Sebastian Lletget a 4 year deal.

Inter Miami have given out 5 new 1-year contracts to Robbie Robinson, Ariel Lassiter, Drake Callender, Bryce Duke and Ryan Sailor. Sailor's deal also includes a club option of two more years with the Major League Soccer team.

FC Cincinnati have given Brazilian striker Sergio Santos a 2-year contract with a club option for a further 2 years.

Juventus signed up Riccardo Turicchia until 2025.

Transfers

Indian Super League side NorthEast United have released Sly.

St Louis City have paid £100,000 to Major League Soccer side Austin to sign Jared Stroud.

Injury Round Up

Australian winger Martin Boyle is expected to be fit for the World Cup despite being unavailable for club side Hibernian for the next couple of weeks with a knee problem.

Senegal's Ghana winger Sadio Mane is to have a scan on a knee injury, but Bayern Munich believe he should be able to play in the World Cup.

Job Changes

Southampton having finally seen sense and sacked Ralph Hasenhuttl, after spending the summer changing all his coaching staff, have been given permission to speak to Luton Town boss Nathan Jones about replacing him. It is bizarre that Saints did not remove him in the summer, obviously having learnt nothing from what happened at Liverpool with Brendan Rodgers, when he also threw all his coaching staff under the bus. It is incredible to think that, despite a couple of 9-0 defeats, Hasenhuttl actually survived nearly 4 years in charge of Soton, with no sign of him producing the style of football he claimed ahead of his appointment.

Northern Ireland have turned to their former captain Aaron Hughes as their new Technical Director. The former Newcastle United and Aston Villa defender joined the IFA last year as an elite football development consultant.

Stoke City are livin' la vida loca after they appointed Ricky Martin as their new Technical Director. Martin was working as Academy Manager at West Ham United prior to the move. Kenny Brown will be interim Academy Manager for the Hammers while they search for a new permanent appointment. At Stoke, Andy Cousins will be moved from Head of Football Operations to become Head of Recruitment.

Cardiff City have offered interim boss Mark Hudson the manager's job until the end of the season. Hudson captained Cardiff while still a player.

Manchester City have appointed Brentford's Jack Wilson as their new First Team Performance Analyst for Set Pieces.

Disciplinary Charges

Argentina's Champions Trophy final ended early after ten players were sent off, including three who were on the bench. Racing Club won the trophy as they were leading 2-1 over Boca Juniors before Boca were reduced to 6 men by sendings off. Seven Boca players in total, including two on the bench, were shown red cards after Racing scored their second in the 118th minute. Carlos Alcarez scored and then celebrated in front of the Boca fans. He was then surrounded by Boca players, who also grabbed him by the ear and threw the ball at him in a distasteful incident. The referee sent off Alcarez along with five of the Boca players, who included unused substitute Dario Benedetto and Carlos Zambrano, who had been subbed off earlier in the game. One of Racing's unused substitutes, Jonathan Galvan, was also sent off. The game had already had 3 dismissals, with Boca's Sebastian Villa and Racing's Johan Carbonero sent off after an argument in the 95th minute, while Boca's Alan Varela received his second yellow in the 100th minute. The referee in charge of the match, Facundo Tello, will be officiating at the World Cup in Qatar.

Conmebol, the confederation of South American football associations, has given their backing to FIFA's letter asking nations to forget about the controversies and deaths in Qatar and to concentrate on the football. Conmebol stated: "Conmebol and its ten member associations join the call for world football unity in support of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022. A country eager to show its hospitality and warmth, magnificent sports venues and 32 prepared teams with their greatest potential. They ensure a tournament that will undoubtedly go down in history. As few times in history, human society today needs the powerful message of sport in general and football, the most popular of them, in particular. This message is powerful because it is universal, it goes far beyond political or ideological disputes, temporary disagreements and occasional confrontations. It is a message full of optimism, tolerance, inclusion, diversity, union. The Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 is the best opportunity to consolidate the values ​​on which football is founded. Due to its scope, its prestige and tradition, the World Cup multiplies the positive impact of these values. This is especially so in the new generations, in girls, boys and young people, who hope and seek that football is not tarnished or distorted with biased or partial visions. "Let's open the field to those values ​​- effort as a path to self-improvement; the articulation of individual talent and teamwork; respect for the rival; the competition with loyalty - and let them be protagonists during this Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022. The time has come to leave controversies behind and value and enjoy a true ecumenical party, eagerly awaited by the entire planet. Let the ball start rolling to bring joy and emotions to everyone!"

Middlesbrough have made an official complaint to police over racist abuse directed at their forward Chuba Akpom on Twitter. Akpom was called an "idiot ni****" on a post the club put up at the end of a match. When they reported the abuse to Twatter, the Elon Musk-owned platform informed that that the reply violated no Twitter rules and no action would be taken. Middlesbrough called the response by the (un)social media platform "completely unacceptable". It must surely be time that the social media platforms themselves were held responsible for what is posted on them? I am sure they would quickly find a way to deal with the abuse then, if they were liable each time.

Heart of Midlothian have appealed against the red card shown to midfielder Jorge Grant in their win over Motherwell on Sunday, but it was rejected by the SFA.

Gerard Pique managed to get himself sent off at half-time in his farewell appearance, without even getting on the pitch after remonstrating with the referee from the bench.

Former FIFA president Sepp 'Brown Envelope' Blatter has admitted that the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was a "mistake", though he stopped short of mentioning that it was of his making. Instead he claimed to be against it because Qatar is "too small of a country" to host the tournament and that "football and the World Cup are too big for it". Blatter pointed the finger of blame squarely at his former ally Michel Platini saying: "It was a bad choice and I was responsible for that as president at the time. Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his [Uefa] team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It's the truth." This follows comments by a Qatar World Cup ambassador, Khalid Salman, to a German broadcaster wherein he referred to homosexuality as "damage in the mind" and said LGBTQ+ people should "accept our rules".

UEFA have dismissed an attempt by A22 Sports Management to revive the Super League proposal saying: "A22 Sports Management has published an account of their visit to Uefa Headquarters in Nyon today. Uefa is currently checking the recording to see if they are talking about the same meeting. The 'other executives' they refer to were not faceless bureaucrats but senior stakeholders from across European football, players, clubs, leagues and fans; people who live and breathe the game every day. To fail to recognise that is disrespectful. If there is a 'takeaway' from today, it should be that the whole of European football opposes their greedy plan. A22 wanted dialogue so we gave them 2.5 hours of time from all of the game's stakeholders and each one rejected their approach. They claim not to represent the three remaining clubs. They refuse to define what their alleged new approach is. They claim to want dialogue. But when presented with the chance, they have nothing to say."

Ecuador have been cleared to take part in the World Cup by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who agreed with FIFA's decision over the eligibility of Byron Castillo. CAS stated that the nationality of a player is determined by national laws and so Castillo was free to play as Ecuador have given him Ecuadorian nationality. But they also ruled that Castillo's passport contained false information, namely that he was, as Peri and Chile claimed, born in Tumaco, Colombia on a different date from the one in his documents. Ecuador have been fined 100,000 Swiss francs (around £87,600) and given a 3-point deduction going into the next World Cup qualifying tournament.

Pointless List Of The Day

Denmark have named their preliminary squad for the World Cup and included Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen, despite his collapse while playing for them in the Euro 2020 match against Finland:
Denmark preliminary squad
Goalkeepers: Kasper Schmeichel (Nice), Oliver Christensen (Hertha Berlin).
Defenders: Simon Kjaer (AC Milan), Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace), Joakim Maehle (Atalanta), Andreas Christensen (Barcelona), Rasmus Kristensen (Leeds United), Jens Stryger Larsen (Trabzonspor), Victor Nelsson (Galatasaray), Daniel Wass (Brondby).
Midfielders: Thomas Delaney (Sevilla), Mathias Jensen (Brentford), Christian Eriksen (Manchester United), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham).
Forwards: Andreas Skov Olsen (Club Bruges), Jesper Lindstrom (Eintracht Frankfurt), Andreas Cornelius (Copenhagen), Martin Braithwaite (Espanyol), Kasper Dolberg (Sevilla), Mikkel Damsgaard (Brentford), Jonas Wind (VfL Wolfsburg).

Brazil have also named their squad:
Brazil squad
Goalkeepers: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City), Weverton (Palmeiras)
Defenders: Dani Alves (UNAM), Danilo (Juventus), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Alex Telles (Sevilla), Bremer (Juventus), Eder Militao (Real Madrid), Marquinhos (PSG), Thiago Silva (Chelsea)
Midfielders: Casemiro (Manchester United), Everton Ribeiro (Flamengo), Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle), Fabinho (Liverpool), Fred (Manchester United), Lucas Paqueta (West Ham)
Forwards: Antony (Manchester United), Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal), Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Neymar (PSG), Pedro (Flamengo), Raphinha (Barcelona), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Richarlison (Tottenham Hotspur), Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).

Australia squad
Goalkeepers: Mathew Ryan (FC Copenhagen), Andrew Redmayne (Sydney FC), Danny Vukovic (Central Coast Mariners)
Defenders: Aziz Behich (Dundee United), Milos Degenek (Columbus Crew), Thomas Deng (Aibirex Niigata), Joel King (Odense Boldklub), Nathaniel Atkinson (Hearts), Fran Karacic (Brescia), Harry Souttar (Stoke City), Kye Rowles (Hearts), Craig Goodwin (Adelaide United)
Midfielders: Aaron Mooy (Celtic), Jackson Irvine (St Pauli), Ajdin Hrustic (Hellas Verona), Bailey Wright (Sunderland), Cameron Devlin (Hearts), Riley McGree (Middlesbrough), Keanu Baccus (St Mirren)
Forwards: Awer Mabil (Cadiz), Mathew Leckie (Melbourne City), Martin Boyle (Hibernian), James Maclaren (Melbourne City), Jason Cummings (Central Coast Mariners), Mitchell Duke (Fagiano Okayama), Garang Kuol (Central Coast Mariners)

Costa Rica squad
Goalkeepers: Keylor Navas (Paris St-Germain), Esteban Alvarado (Herediano), Patrick Sequeira (CD Lugo)
Defenders: Francisco Calvo (Konyaspor), Juan Pablo Vargas(Millonarios FC), Kendall Waston (Saprissa), Oscar Duarte (Al-Wehda), Daniel Chacon (Colorado Rapids), Keysher Fuller (Herediano), Carlos Martinez (San Carlos), Bryan Oviedo (Real Salt Lake), Ronald Matarrita (Cincinnati)
Midfielders: Yeltsin Tejeda (Herediano), Celso Borges (Alajuelense), Youstin Salas (Saprissa), Roan Wilson (Grecia), Gerson Torres (Herediano), Douglas Lopez (Herediano) Jewisson Bennette (Sunderland), Alvaro Zamora (Saprissa), Anthony Hernandez (Puntarenas FC), Brandon Aguilera (Nottingham Forest), Bryan Ruiz (Alajuelense)
Forwards: Joel Campbell (Leon), Anthony Contreras (Herediano) Johan Venegas (Alajuelense)

Champions League Draw

Full last-16 draw:
RB Leipzig v Manchester City
Club Bruges v Benfica
Liverpool v Real Madrid
AC Milan v Tottenham
Frankfurt v Napoli
Borussia Dortmund v Chelsea
Inter Milan v Porto
Paris St-Germain v Bayern Munich

Europa League Play-Off Draw

Full play-off round draw
Barcelona v Manchester United
Juventus v Nantes
Sporting Lisbon v Midtjylland
Shakhtar Donetsk v Rennes
Ajax v Union Berlin
Bayer Leverkusen v Monaco
Sevilla v PSV Eindhoven
FC Salzburg v Roma

City Make Record Revenues

Manchester City have announced club record revenues of £613m, the second highest in English club football history behind the £627m local rivals Manchester United reported in 2019. City also made profits of £41.73m for the 2021-22 season. During the period they also made profit on player trading of £67.6m, with the club also stating they have already made approximately £35m on transfers since the reporting period.

FA Cup 2nd Round

The draw for the English FA Cup 2nd round has been made, the final round before Championship and Premier League teams enter the competition.
Full FA Cup second-round draw
Curzon Ashton or Cambridge United v Grimsby Town
Wrexham v Farnborough
Accrington Stanley v Barnet or Chelmsford
Ebbsfleet United v Fleetwood Town
Ipswich Town v Buxton
Barnsley v Crewe Alexandra
Forest Green Rovers v Alvechurch
Portsmouth v MK Dons
Shrewsbury Town v Peterborough United or Salford City
Solihull Moors or Hartlepool v Harrogate Town
King's Lynn Town v Stevenage
Charlton Athletic v Stockport County
Bristol Rovers v Boreham Wood
Dagenham & Redbridge v AFC Fylde or Gillingham
Woking or Oxford United v Exeter City
Sheffield Wednesday v Mansfield Town
Weymouth or AFC Wimbledon v Chesterfield
Burton Albion v Chippenham Town
Walsall v Carlisle United
Newport County v Torquay United or Derby County

Written by Tris Burke November 09 2022 09:32:34