West Ham sign French midfielder Dimitri Payet from Marseille on a five-year contract in a deal reportedly worth more than £10m. The outstanding 28-year-old joins the Hammers on a five-year contract, with a further one-year option. Blessed with superlative technical skills, exceptional vision and an inventive range of passing, Payet operates to great effect from his preferred central attacking midfield position, and is sure to add eye-catching flair and creativity to Slaven Bilic’s side.  Payet, who becomes West Ham’s third senior summer signing following the captures of Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph, is looking forward to bringing his formidable talent to the Barclays Premier League. Payet said the Club’s determination to bring him to east London played a huge part in him deciding to end his hugely successful spell in French football.
The player spoke to Joint-Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold and new manager Slaven Bilic before putting pen to paper on his West Ham contract. “West Ham really showed me that they wanted me to come, both the Joint-Chairmen and the manager,” Payet told whufc.com. “That’s very important for me. I was also keen to sign up to a clear project. West Ham’s is very interesting and matches perfectly with my ambitions. “Firstly I spoke with the manager, who really wished for me to come here and had been watching me a lot. He made it clear that he wanted me to sign and that too was important in my choice. “I’m an attacking footballer so for sure I like attacking football and that they’re counting on me to help achieve that gives me a sense of responsibility. The fact that I’m here is also down to that. “I’m very happy to be here. It’s true that it’s taken a little while but that’s normal, negotiations are like that. But now that it’s done, I’m very happy.”

Barcelona forward Neymar, who has left Brazil’s Copa America camp after being banned for the tournament, posted a picture of his tattoo of his sister – with his sibling’s face next to it for comparison purposes.

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, 33, will undergo a medical today ahead of his proposed moved to Arsenal. The fee is reportedly £11m and personal terms have been agreed.

Tough to imagine? Not so if you worked for Ghana’s Football Association at the 2014 World Cup where their “equipment officer” earned $100,000. In a 396-page report which investigates the Black Stars’ first-round exit in Brazil, payment for a role also defined as “ball boy” is highlighted. Ismail Hamidu was the lucky recipient of a sum equal to that earned by individual players, doctors, coaches and manager James Kwesi Appiah. The report also found a fee of $5,263 was paid to Ghana’s official drummer. His beat was not enough to help the team beat Portugal in their final group fixture to reach the second round, a match which followed the country’s FA flying $3m out to South America to settle a pay dispute with players. Two sentences in the Dzamefe Report that perhaps sum up the frustrations and difficulties of Ghana’s World Cup campaign are:

• The government’s decision to pay $100,000 to each of their 23 players “reduced the tension”
• “The players however insisted on being paid in cash and this reignited the tension”

The report aims to unpick myriad financial issues surrounding Ghana’s World Cup campaign, including some payments which could not be verified or accounted for. The African side received $8m for their group-stage exit, but spent almost $4m more than that on their campaign from the beginning of qualifying.