Football News: Review Of The Day 2nd July 2018

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Review of the Day

Transfers

AFC Bournemouth have signed young midfielder David Brooks from Sheffield United for an undisclosed fee. The 20 year old Welsh international has agreed a 4 year contract with the Cherries, with a fee reported to be in excess of £10m.

Spanish centre back Pablo Mari has gone to Deportivo La Coruna on loan from Manchester City for the season.

Danish centre back Andreas Bjelland has been released by Brentford.

Cagliari have paid over £5m to sign Argentine midfielder Lucas Castro from Chievo.

VfB Stuttgart have released 29 year old German defender Holger Badstuber.

Cameroon centre back Nicolas N'Koulou has left Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais to join Serie A's Torino for just over £3m.

Jonathan Bamba has left Saint-Etienne following his contract expiring.

Colombian striker Juan Ferney Otero has left Argentinian side Estudiantes to join Amiens in Ligue 1.

Free agent German centre back Toni Leistner has signed for QPR. He had been with Union Berlin previously.

Senegal Asks FIFA To Rethink Fair Play Rules

The football federation of Senegal (FSF) have asked FIFA to change the fair play ruling which saw them knocked out because Japan made a deliberate effort to play out time in their final game, despite being behind by a goal to nil. It led to farcical scenes as, completely against the spirit of the rules, Japan were able to avoid any extra bookings simply by playing the game at walking pace and making no attempt to actually compete. The so-called fair play rules actually created unfair play and even the Japanese manager apologised afterwards. An FSF spokeperson said: "The federation believes that Japan literally refused to play when it learned that Colombia had just scored a goal against Senegal, a refusal to play that suited Japan but which is contrary to the principles governing football. The federation is all the more shocked that the Japan coach did not deny the facts. In the post-match press conference, the latter even confirmed he had made the decision to manipulate the result by keeping the score at 1-0. The Senegalese Football Federation deplores the lack of fair play this Japanese team has shown. It challenges Fifa on the notion of ranking the number of cards which loses its meaning and interest when the team lacking fair play is not worried by any penalty. In future, Fifa should penalise a team that plays that way. Fifa has adopted a new system but does the fair play rule solve all the problems? After the game, nothing happened to either Japan or Poland. There should be some means of penalising players, coaches or teams for such an attitude." FIFA director of competition Colin Smith said on Friday: "This is the first time we've used it at a World Cup, so we will review it. But, as things stand, we do not see any need to change it." This despite both teams being booed and jeered throughout the final minutes in scenes described by commentators as "embarrassing", "an absolute farce" and "****ing disgraceful". Actually that last one might have been me when I made the mistake of flicking over to see what was happening there.....

FIFA Hands Out Fan Fines

Russia, Mexico, Serbia and Morocco have all picked up fines from FIFA. Russia were fined about £7500 for a "discriminatory" banner displayed by their fans during the defeat to Uruguay. Serbia were fined double that amount for a "political and offensive" banner displayed by fans during their game against Brazil. It is the second time this tournament that Serbia have been fined for the same offence. Mexico were fined over £10,000 after their fans threw objects during the 3-0 defeat to Sweden. Morocco were handed the biggest fine of £50,000 following their draw with Spain. Their fine was due to a series of incidents, including crowd disturbances.

Iniesta Announces International Retirement

2010 World Cup winning goal scorer, Andres Iniesta, has announced his decision to retire from international football, following Spain's exit from the World Cup on penalties to Russia. The 34 year old has already left Barcelona to go into semi-retirement in Japanese club football. Spain's caretaker head coach, Fernando Hierro, described Iniesta as "one of the greatest players in our history".

Sidibe Injury Worries For France

France have worries over an injury to full-back Djibril Sidibe after he limped out of training on Sunday. Sidibe has only just recovered from the knee injury which saw him lose his place to Banjamin Pavard. France have a World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay to look forward to.

Golden Boy List Announced
Tuttosport have announced an extensive 'shortlist' of nominees for the 2018 Golden Boy awards. I have no idea how they decided this list, it makes little sense as some have yet to even play for their club's first team. Last year's winner was Kylian Mbappe, who is favourite to win it again this year too.
Full 'shortlist':
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool
Carles Alena, Barcelona
Jose Maria Amo, Sevilla Atletico
Angel Gomes, Manchester United
Mirko Antonucci, Roma
Houssem Aouar, Lyon
Giorgi Arabidze, Shakhtar Donetsk
Joaquin Ardaiz, Royal Antwerp
Ismail Azzaoui, Willem II
Musa Barrow, Atalanta
Fabian Benko, Bayern Munich
Sander Berge, Racing Genk
Justin Bijlow, Feyenoord
Bilal Boutobba, Sevilla
Brahim Diaz, Manchester City
Lorenzo Callegari, Paris Saint-Germain
Lazar Carevic, Barcelona
Daniele Collinge, Stuttgart
Patrick Cutrone, AC Milan
Dani Olmo, Dinamo Zagreb
Tom Davies, Everton
Matthijs De Ligt, Ajax
Abdou Diakhate, Fiorentina
Krepin Diatta, Club Brugge
Javairo Dilrosun, Hertha Berlin
Diogo Dalot, Manchester United
Moussa Djenepo, Standard Liege
Ritsu Doan, Groningen
Mamadou Doucoure, Borussia Monchengladbach
Odsonne Edouard, Celtic
Marcus Edwards, Tottenham
Sergei Eremenko, Spartak Moscow
Zackarias Faour, Osters
Francisco Feuillassier, Real Madrid
Phil Foden, Manchester City
Mamadou Fofana, Alanyaspor
Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Crystal Palace
Juan Foyth, Tottenham
Dennis Geiger, Hoffenheim
Giorgos Giannoutsos, AEK Athens
Ianis Hagi, Viitorul Constanta
Achraf Hakimi, Real Madrid
Amadou Haidara, Red Bull Salzburg
Kai Havertz, Bayer Leverkusen
Callum Hudson-odoi, Chelsea
Nanitamo Ikone, Montpellier
Alexander Isak, Borussia Dortmund
Arnel Jakupovic, Juventus
Dejan Joveljic, Red Star Belgrade
Herbie Kane, Liverpool
Yann Karamoh, Inter Milan
Teun Koopmeiners, AZ Alkmaar
Han Kwang-Song, Cagliari
Alban Lafont, Toulouse
Leandrinho, Napoli
Dimitris Limnios, PAOK
Justin Kluivert, Roma
Lincoln, Gremio
Jordan Lotomba, Young Boys
Davor Lovren, Fortuna Dusseldorf
Sandi Lovric, Sturm Graz
Mikhail Lysov, Lokomotiv Moscow
Arne Maier, Hertha Berlin
Dennis Man, Steaua Bucharest
Manu Garcia, Manchester City
Faitout Maouassa, Rennes
Mauro Junior, PSV Eindhoven
Stephy Mavididi, Arsenal
Kylian Mbappe, Paris Saint-Germain
Weston McKennie, Schalke
Jan Mlakar, Maribor
Nikola Moro, Dinamo Zagreb
Reiss Nelson, Arsenal
Lukas Nmecha, Manchester City
Martin Odegaard, Heerenveen
Abdulkadir Omur, Trabzonspor
Matej Oravec, Spartak Trnava
Reece Oxford, Borussia Monchengladbach
Pedro Pereira, Genoa
Pietro Pellegri, Monaco
Alejandro Pozo Pozo, Sevilla
Christian Pulisic, Borussia Dortmund
Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Arsenal
Panagiotis Retsos, Bayer Leverkusen
Rui Pedro, Boavista
Yusuf Sari, Marseille
Ismaila Sarr, Rennes
Malang Sarr, Nice
Borna Sosa, Dinamo Zagreb
Moussa Sylla, Monaco
Antonio Moya Vega, Atletico Madrid
Idrissa Toure, Werder Bremen
Dayot Upamecano, Red Bull Leipzig
Moussa Wague, KAS Eupen
Chris Willock, Benfica
Ben Woodburn, Liverpool

Sampaoli Leaves Argentina Job

After a disastrous World Cup campaign, Jorge Sampaoli has been sacked by Argentina. Sampaoli only took over the role a year ago with Argentina on the verge of failing to make the finals at all. Sampaoli had been successful in international management with Chile, but his career since then has faltered with difficult spells at Sevilla and now Argentina.

Written by Tris Burke July 02 2018 06:11:57