Football News: Review Of The Day 21st November 2018

Image from: freelargeimages.com

Review of the Day

Modeste Signing Hits Snag

Following Anthony Modeste's surprising return to second tier German side FC Koln, a few months after walking out on Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian a month after signing for them for over £25m, Quanjian are threatening legal action. The Chinese Super League club released a statement that read: "We have made preparations to initiate a lawsuit on FC. Koln and Anthony Modeste in Court of Arbitration for Sport."

Suarez Tells Dembele To Focus

Ousmane Dembele has already been criticised by his national coach Didier Deschamps recently, but now Barcelona team-mate Luis Suarez has criticised his attitude as well. Suarez said of Dembele: "Ousmane knows, and other players have said that football is a privilege. That applies to every single player. You have to appreciate this particular situation. So you have to focus a little more and be a little bit more responsible. He's still young and has a lot of people around him in Barcelona who he can look at to see how professional they are. He can use this time to continue to learn. But he must always have the confidence to prevail at Barcelona. He deserves to be here." Dembele has become known for his inability to turn up to training on time, when he bothers to turn up at all, often due to a tendency to sit up all night playing video games.

Celtic Youngster Gets New Deal

Teenage Celtic winger Mikey Johnston has been awarded a new contract with the Glasgow giants. The 19 year old has managed 9 first team appearances this season and has now signed a 3 year contract extension which runs until 2023. The Scotland U-21 international has been with Celtic since he joined their academy aged 9 and made his first team debut at the age of 17.

EFL Broadcasting Deal "Gravely Concerns" Clubs

A number of Championship clubs have hit out at the new £595m TV deal that the EFL have agreed with Sky Sports. The clubs claim that they were not fully consulted and a statement was released from "several unnamed clubs" which read: "Nineteen clubs from the league wrote to the EFL asking them not to sign the deal and to engage in meaningful discussions. Championship clubs are gravely concerned that the EFL board has announced it has approved a new long-term domestic broadcasting rights deal. Our issues are not with Sky, who we respect and value, but with the way in which the proposed agreement has been negotiated and explained to clubs. We remain convinced that any solution to the broadcasting of EFL competitions can only be on the basis of protecting attendances and securing the financial position of all our 72 clubs. There is a calm determination within Championship clubs to ensure the matter is not left here."

Sturridge Asks For More Time

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge has requested more time to respond to a misconduct charge for alleged breaches of gambling rules. Initially the 26-capped England forward was given until 18:00 GMT on 20th November to respond to the charge.

Gunners Can Compete Without Champions League Football

Arsenal's new managing director Vinai Venkatesham has said that the club can afford to invest enough to remain competitive even if they fail to reach the Champions League again. Venkatesham said: "It is not going to be easy but I absolutely, 100 per cent believe Arsenal Football Club can get back to where it needs to get. The first step we need to do is get back into the Champions League and then we need to start competing and then we need to start winning the biggest trophies in the game. We need to be realistic, last season we finished sixth and we had our second season in a row in the Europa League - that is not where we want this football club to be. I think it has an impact across the club - it is a material impact, financially, being in the Europa League and not the Champions League. It is hard to put a number on it because it depends how well you do in the Europa League and how well you do in the Champions League and it depends on how many English clubs are in both. But it is tens of millions of pounds, it is a material impact being in the Europa League - so that is the financial bit of it. We do have a self-sustaining business model so the more years you spend out of the Champions League the bigger strain it puts on the business model. There's not a final point we get to where it becomes a catastrophic problem and we are nowhere near that. We run the business in a responsible way - we know there are at least six teams who have a minimum requirement of being in the Champions League. So we have that robustness built into our business model that we can have some seasons in the Europa League and still make the investments we need."

Former Prem Player Investigated Over Stalking

Former Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Jelle van Damme is being investigated by police after his ex-wife Elke Clijsters, the sister of tennis star Kim, accused him of stalking her for almost 3 years. The pair married in 2008 but split in 2014, getting a divorce in 2016. Elke stated on social media: "I've had to cope with a stalker for almost three years. I thought about deleting my profile, but felt that he would have won had I done so. He created anonymous profiles, sent me messages, lied about me and told other people what a terrible person I am. He would sit in his car outside my house at night to see what I was up to, and who I brought home. He'd sneak into my back garden to peer through my bedroom window, and would ask my friends about me. He sent me messages saying my late father would be ashamed if he could see me, and a whole lot more. This has had a great emotional impact on me. I kept quiet for a long time and tried to cope with it. I was sad and frightened, but angry as well. I asked myself what had I done wrong."

Written by Tris Burke November 21 2018 04:35:30