Football News: Review Of The Day 2nd December 2022

Review of the Day

Contracts

Leyton Orient have extended the contract of their head coach Richie Wellens until 2025.

Udinese's former Leeds United goalkeeper Marco Silvestri has extended his deal to end in 2025.

Miquel Parera has extended his contract with Racing Santander to also end in 2025.

Teenage RB Leipzig left-back Sanoussy Ba is another to take his deal up until 2025.

Transfers

Brazilian midfielder Paulinho has left Bayer Leverkusen on a loan deal to Atletico Mineiro.

Injury Round Up

Crewe Alexandra forward Chris Long has been ruled out for 3 months. The Railwaymen striker needs an operation on the ankle injury he suffered in training. Long has struggled for fitness this season, after being last season's top scorer, playing just once so far in the 2022-23 season.

Job Changes

Roberto Martinez has left his job as Belgium manager following their disastrous performance in the World Cup. Belgium had been one of the favourites pre-tournament, but have crashed out of the group stage scoring just one goal and that against Canada. They ended up below Morocco and Croatia to head home with their tails between their legs and Martinez packing his bags. While Belgium have constantly been in the top 3 world ranked in the world under Martinez, they have failed to make any kind of mark when it mattered as he looked like a manager that got sacked by Everton, rather than an international boss.

Former Aston Villa interim head coach Aaron Danks has taken up a role under Michael Carrick as a first-team coach at Middlesbrough. Danks took charge of Villa for 2 games following the sacking of Steven Gerrard earlier this season. Danks initially joined Villa under Dean Smith but stayed to work with Gerrard, but new head coach Unai Emery felt he was surplus to requirements after bringing in six members of staff. Danks will be working alongside Jonathan Woodgate as a first-team coach, with Grant Leadbitter coming in to take a development role between the first team and academy.

Interim boss Lee Bell has been confirmed as permanent manager of Crewe Alexandra. Bell took charge on 4th November, after Alex Morris stepped down from the role to become his assistant.

Blackpool have appointed Chris Badlan as their new Sporting Director. He was working as Head of Recruitment at Coventry City, a role he began in May 2018. One of Coventry's Recruitment Analysts, Stuart Benthom, has also moved to Blackpool to become Chief Scout.

Disciplinary Charges

Prosecutors are looking for 12 former members of the Juventus board to go on trial for false accounting, including all ten that recently resigned all at once. During Andrea Agnelli's reign as president, Juve ran up record losses but it is alleged that the losses were much higher than declared. In 2019 a loss of 89m euros was declared but prosecutors claim the actual losses were as high as 239m euros. Last season the Turin club declared a record high loss of 254.3m. Juventus are alleged to have used numerous methods to hide losses, such as claiming at the start of the pandemic that 23 players had agreed to salary reductions for four months, but their salary was only actually reduced for one month. To add to the Italian club's troubles, UEFA have now opened an FFP investigation into them as well. Juventus were one of 8 clubs that agreed a settlement with UEFA earlier this year after failing to comply with FFP requirements. As usual Spain's La Liga jumped in two-footed to make their usual hypocritical attack and as for "immediate sports sanctions" to be placed on Juve.

One of the two that did not resign recently is Tottenham Hotspur Sporting Director Fabio Paratici, who was previously at Juve. Paratici is claimed to be the main architect of the inflation of player values, with comments from him arguing that capital gains would be a problem for prosecutors as it is difficult for player values to be quantified. However the prosecutors are reported to be relying on hidden contracts that they discovered detailing under the table payments, including a claimed 19m euros that is still owed to Cristiano Ronaldo. During the police investigation a wiretap of his former assistant that replaced him at Juve, Federico Cherubini's phone certainly point the finger of blame directly at Paratici. Cherubini was heard to say: "You just couldn't reason with Fabio. As long as Marotta was there, he could put the brakes on him. When Marotta went, he had carte blanche. Fabio could wake up in the morning and sign away €20m without anyone telling him anything. I told him several times: we're over-doing it here. I mean, it's a legit system, but you're pushing it too far. He replied: it doesn't matter to us. If you put 4 or 10, nobody can say anything." All suggesting they knew they were in the wrong but did it anyway. Cherubini also was heard to say that they stopped using the method after Paratici left: "Fortunately in the light of recent visits we stopped." It certainly seems likely that they stopped as the club went from capital gains of 126m Euros in June 2019 and 166m in June 2020, down to just 29m in June 2021.

The Italian Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, has said that there will be more clubs in trouble: "Juventus' situation is only the extreme tip and, in some ways, even sensational, of a phenomenon we can't look the other way. Juventus probably isn't the only one. it's time to put things in order and check everything in a more punctual manner, because there are companies that behave in an extremely correct manner and others that, evidently, have interpreted the rules in a particular way. This also causes a problem in terms of fair competition."

The Football Association have hit Barnsley with a £30,000 fine for their fans' making discriminatory chants towards a female member of Bristol Rovers' staff during the League One game between the two sides in August.

Also receiving fines are Fleetwood Town and Bolton Wanderers, who have been fined £4,000 each for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion during Bolton's 2-1 win over Fleetwood in League One on 19th November.

Pointless List Of The Day

La Liga Duo Boycott

Real Madrid and Barcelona are to boycott the La Liga Extraordinary General Assembly to be held in Dubai on 7th December. Both clubs have hit out at the location, pointing out that they could easily have been held at La Liga's headquarters. The planned meeting is to discuss proposed changes to La Liga's competition regulations. Barca stated: "FC Barcelona's position has always been that of reaching consensual agreements after having examined the issue coherently and respecting all positions. For that reason, we do not believe it is the right time to travel to Dubai for an event which could well take place at La Liga's headquarters and once again we show our opposition to any form of action that we consider damaging to the rights and interests of FC Barcelona." Madrid went further, terming the request as an "illegal summons": "It is totally unjustifiable to address in this improvised and urgent way, without the appropriate debate and calm analysis, relevant modifications of the internal regulations of La Liga. It is completely inappropriate and deeply inconsistent for La Liga to commit the economic waste of displacing more than 100 people to carry out an act of this nature, on these dates, to the United Arab Emirates, when it could be held at the La Liga headquarters without incur extraordinary costs."

Rail Seat Increase

Liverpool are set to add a further 2,500 rail seats at Anfield to add to the 7,800 already there, increasing capacity of the rail seating to over 10,000. The club is undergoing a trial of the rail seats because of concerns over "persistent standing" of fans in some areas of the stadium. Managing Director Andy Hughes said: "The health and safety of supporters when attending matches is paramount. Following a review of the initial rail seating trial last season, we will now expand the trial and introduce rail seating in additional areas of the Kop to further address crowd safety and persistent standing in line with SGSA [Sports Grounds Safety Authority] guidance."

Gills Takeover Close?

Florida-based businessman Brad Galinson, described as a 'property magnate', has invested money into Gillingham in return for a charge on the club's Priestfield Stadium. It is expected to be a step towards Galinson buying the club from current owner Paul Scally, who is looking to sell after 27 years due to the abuse he has been getting from fans.

Written by Tris Burke December 02 2022 09:02:27