The Togo coach, Tom Saintfiet, says he is hopeful he may yet be able to convince Emmanuel Adebayor to return to the national team, after the striker rejected a call-up for their forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Tunisia. Adebayor, who last played for his country in June 2015, said he wanted to focus on his new club Crystal Palace who he joined in January after 10 months away from professional football. But Saintfiet insisted that the 32-year-old is still key to his plans. “Me as national team coach, I want Adebayor to return to the national team, I want him to be there, I want him to play and I want him to score goals for our country,” Saintfiet said. Adebayor has had a difficult relationship with coach Tom Saintfiet in the past. The former Tottenham, Manchester City and Arsenal player had not been picked since failing to turn up for a Nations Cup qualifier against Djibouti in September following a row over losing the captaincy.

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Former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is coming out retirement at the age of 45 to play for a Dutch amateur team. Van der Sar answered an SOS after VV Noordwijk – his first senior club – were left without cover when their keeper picked up an injury. “We are thrilled that Edwin wants to help,” Noordwijk director Peter Vink told Voetbal in de Bollenstreek.

Former Brazil and Inter Milan striker Adriano has arrived in the United States as he joins up with new club Miami United. The 34-year-old, who scored 27 times in 48 games for his country, signed for the fourth-tier team in January after being released by Atlético Paranaense in 2014. He has been dogged by injury and off-field issues in recent years.

Wednesday 9 March, 2016:

Chelsea 1 – 2 PSG (2 – 4 aggregate)

Zenith 1 – 2 Benfica (1 – 3 aggregate)

The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has provisionally suspended committee member Edzai Kasinauyo over allegations of match-fixing. The former international has denied the allegations in the local press. A statement from Zifa said the investigations are ongoing. “The suspension has been occasioned by allegations of match fixing ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations match between Zimbabwe and Swaziland,” it read. “Zifa president Dr Phillip Chiyangwa will issue a statement after consultations with Cosafa, Caf, Fifa and the Government of Zimbabwe.” Kasinauyo was quoted in the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper as saying: “I have never been involved in such things all my life and the only relief that I have right now is that I am being told there is evidence and that will paint the correct picture and help set me free.” The 40-year-old was elected to the Zifa executive committee in December and was part of his country’s squad at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2006.

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Manchester United will be able to stay and train at their usual base ahead of Thursday’s Europa League game away at Liverpool, after being awarded special dispensation by UEFA. Under current UEFA rules the visiting side in European competitions must stay within 27 miles of the host’s stadium the day before a game. The United squad usually stays at an hotel in Salford ahead of a domestic away match. However, the 34-mile distance to Anfield meant the club faced the prospect of having to travel to Liverpool a day early ahead of the last-16 first-leg tie. United’s training complex, Carrington, is also seven miles outside the usual distance permitted by UEFA. However, following an appeal from United, UEFA has now granted special dispensation allowing the club to remain in Manchester on Wednesday night. Louis van Gaal’s squad is expected to train as usual at Carrington on Wednesday morning and travel to Liverpool the following day. Thursday’s match will be the first time the two English clubs have met in European football. Liverpool are expected to stay in Manchester the day before next week’s second leg.

Premier League clubs have agreed to limit away ticket prices to a maximum of £30 for the next three seasons. The clubs announced the new deal on Wednesday after unanimously agreeing to the new price cap at their last meeting in February. The new initiative comes after a number of high profile protests against ticket prices in the Premier League. The league has enjoyed a record average attendance of 96.2 per cent this season but a number of supporter groups have raised concerns about increasing prices, particularly for away supporters. The away ticket cap replaces the existing Away Supporters Initiative – a set of travel and ticket subsidies originally introduced by clubs in 2013. The new cap is set to run for three years and will apply from the start of next season to the end of the 2018/19 season.

Barcelona have unveiled plans to upgrade the club’s Nou Camp stadium to a 105,000 capacity ground. The Spanish and European champions released a statement on Monday announcing the plans alongside concept images of the four-year upgrade. The stadium’s revamp is set to be led by Japanese architectural company Nikken Sekkei alongside Catalan architects Pascual i Ausió Arquitectes. The plans, which were selected ahead of six other bids, were chosen by a jury made up of Barcelona members, Catalan based architects and City of Barcelona officials. A statement released on Barcelona’s website read: “The Nikken Sekkei + Pascual i Ausio Arquitectes proposal stands out for being open, elegant, serene, timeless Mediterranean and democratic.

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Female football players in Afghanistan’s national team have a new kit – complete with a hijab. The design by Danish sportswear brand Hummel isn’t compulsory but it means women who would normally wear a headscarf to cover their hair now have a more practical option for playing football. There’s also a base layer and leggings, allowing players to be covered from head to toe, if their faith requires it. Shabnam Mabarz, 20, is one player of Afghanistan’s national football team who has tried the hijab kit. Mabarz and her team-mates will be the first to wear a new hijab that is connected to the base layer under their national team shirt. Khalida Popal, the team’s former captain, said: “This jersey is the Afghani team uniform and I am proud to be a role model for thousands of young girls and women back home in Afghanistan. “It is very special to me. It is our identity.”

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Sunderland have signed former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue on a short-term deal until the end of the season. The Ivory Coast full-back, who was a free agent after leaving Galatasaray in the summer, started training with the Black Cats in February. Eboue, 32, spent eight seasons at Arsenal after arriving from Belgian side Beveren in 2004. He moved to Turkey in 2011, where he won three Super Lig titles and five domestic trophies.

Tuesday 8 March, 2016:

Real Madrid 2 – 0 Roma (aggregate 4 – 0)

Wolfsburg 1 – 0 Gent (aggregate 4 – 2)

*During the Madrid game, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 90th champions league goal and also his 40th goal of the season. He has now scored 40 or more goals in six successive seasons at Real Madrid. Great!

Sunderland chief executive Margaret Byrne has resigned following the Adam Johnson child abuse case. Johnson, 28, faces four to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl. The Premier League club has been criticised for letting the England winger play after his arrest. Byrne, chief executive since 2011, said that decision “was a serious mistake”, with the club adding: “We are so very sorry for this.” In a statement, Sunderland said Johnson’s victim had been “very badly let down first and foremost” by the player and “his despicable actions”, but also “by the club they support”. “Mr Johnson lied to the club; he also lied to our fans and they have every right to feel aggrieved by this,” it added.

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Ghanaian Sellas Tetteh is to continue as caretaker coach of Sierra Leone after his loan agreement was extended. He will take charge of Sierra Leone’s upcoming matches against Gabon. The games are on the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying schedule but no points are on offer as Gabon are hosting January’s finals. “After the Gabon matches we will decide whether to make it permanent or not,” Abu Bakarr Kamara, of the Sierra Leone Football Association, told BBC Sport. The Ghana Football Association have replaced Tetteh as coach of their under-20 side with the appointment of Mas-Ud Didi Dramani. Tetteh, who has previously coached Black Stars and Rwanda, was initially loaned to Sierra Leone for three months after the search for permanent coach was put on hold by the football association. Continue reading →

Nike has suspended its contract with Maria Sharapova after the five-time grand slam winner announced she had failed a drug test. The 28-year-old Russian revealed on Monday that she had tested positive for meldonium following her quarter-final defeat against Serena Williams at the Australian Open in January. A statement from sportswear giant Nike read: “We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova. “We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues. “We will continue to monitor the situation.”

Watchmaker Tag Heuer has also decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Sharapova, which ended on December 31 last year. “We had been in talks to extend our collaboration,” A statement from Tag Heuer, who had sponsored Sharapova since 2004, read. “In view of the current situation, the Swiss watch brand has suspended negotiations, and has decided not to renew the contract with Ms Sharapova.”

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Newcastle’s board are weighing up their next move as doubts over Steve McClaren’s future continue. The 54-year-old is under increased pressure following Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League, with the club’s directors holding talks without their manager on Monday. That result left Newcastle in the relegation zone with 10 matches to play, one point behind 17th-placed Sunderland, with McClaren’s tenure as manager yielding just seven wins in all competitions all season. Six of those victories have come in the league but only two of them – against West Ham and West Brom – have been in the last 12 matches. McClaren is understood to have taken the training today.

Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho twitted a picture of himself and Luis Suarez as the latter showed up at Liverpool’s Melwood training complex this morning. Suarez is only on a visit and not coming back to the Reds at least for now.

Eintracht Frankfurt have appointed former Croatia boss Niko Kovac as their new manager. He has named his brother – Robert – as his assistant. The club sacked Armin Veh yesterday after seven matches without a win left them fighting relegation.

Romanian league runners-up ASA Targu Mures will take “drastic” action against the unsportsmanlike behaviour of their players after four were sent off and seven booked in a match against Pandurii Targu-Jiu on Monday. Strikers Marius Tucudean and Ramiro Costa, defender Marius Constantin and midfielder Claudiu Voiculet were shown red cards during the highly-charged game which Pandurii won 2-0. “The Board of Directors of ASA Targu Mures will analyse what happened during the match against Pandurii Targu-Jiu and will take drastic action against players who demonstrated unsportsmanlike conduct,” Targu Mures vice-president Claudiu Maior told local media. Referee Constantin Coltescu also booked three Pandurii players during a game featuring 46 fouls. “We came to play football but you saw what happened, I’ve never anything like this,” Pandurii’s Romania international defender Cristian Sapunaru said. “I hope they realise that it’s not normal to play that violently.”

Former world number one Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open. The Russian, 28, tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006 for health issues. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said the five-time Grand Slam champion would be provisionally suspended from 12 March. Sportswear company Nike said it was halting its relationship with her until the investigation was complete. “I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it,” said Sharapova, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004. Sharapova has been the highest-earning female athlete in the world in each of the past 11 years, according to the Forbes list. With career earnings from tennis alone amounting to almost £26m, she claimed she had taken meldonium “for the past 10 years” after being given it by “my family doctor” but had known the drug as mildronate. “A few days ago, after I received a letter from the ITF, I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know,” she said.

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A man was killed after arguing with a friend over whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo was the best footballer in the world. Nigerian national Michael Chukwuma, 21, stabbed 34-year-old compatriot Obinna Durumchukwu in a Mumbai suburb, Indian police said. The incident took place following a party on Saturday night. “They were discussing football players. One is a fan of Messi and the other was for Ronaldo,” a police inspector said. “During the conversation a quarrel has taken place. The deceased threw a glass into the face of the accused person. The glass broke and caused small injuries. “After that the accused took the broken glass and assaulted the deceased person who died due to heavy bleeding.” Argentina international Messi, 28, is a five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or – the annual award given to the world’s best player by the governing body FIFA. Portugal captain Ronaldo, 31, has won the accolade three times.