Atletico Madrid have lodged an appeal against a two-window FIFA-imposed transfer ban over their dealing in under-age players. The ban, which has also been handed to Madrid rivals Real, is set to commence in July before being lifted at the end of the January transfer window in 2017. Atletico were fined 900,000 Swiss francs (£623,464) and Real 360,000 (£249,385). However, both clubs are still allowed to sign players until the end of this month. In a statement released on Monday, Atletico announced they had “lodged an appeal against the decision by FIFA’s disciplinary commission”. World football’s governing body said the alarm was raised over the two clubs’ dealings by FIFA’s Transfer Matching System, with its disciplinary committee completing the inquiry. Under international football rules, players under 18 cannot be transferred to another country, except in limited circumstances. All transfers need the approval of a special FIFA committee.

Real Madrid have a buy-back clause in their transfer agreement with Arsenal for Mesut Ozil, leaked transfer documents have claimed. A contract on the Football Leaks website claims the Gunners must notify Real if they ever intend to sell the World Cup winner to another Spanish club. The financial terms of the offer received for the Germany international would have be disclosed to Real, who would have 48 hours to decide whether to match the offer, or until noon, London time, on the final day of the relevant transfer window, whichever comes first. Should a rival Spanish club sign Ozil for more than €50m, Real would be entitled to 33 per cent of the profit. The contract, which is unverified, shows Arsenal paid an initial fee of €44m when they signed Ozil in September 2013, with the fee rising to a maximum of €50m. Six separate €1m payments, up to a maximum of €6m, are contingent on Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League group stages in any season from July 2014 onwards. Each payment must be settled within 30 days of qualification being secured, the contract states. Arsenal has declined to comment.

Chelsea have confirmed forward Christian Atsu has joined Malaga on loan until the end of the season. Malaga beat off competition from Levante and Rayo Vallencano and their success is believed to be down to the amount of first-team football they are offering the 24-year-old. Atsu spent the first half of the season on loan with Bournemouth, but he failed to make a single league appearance and was restricted to only two starts in the Capital One Cup. The winger joined Chelsea in the summer of 2013, but is yet to make a first-team appearance and spent a year apiece on loan with Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem and Everton, where he made five Premier League appearance in the 2014-15 season. Atsu replaces Nordin Amrabat in the Malaga squad following the Moroccan forward’s switch to Watford earlier in the transfer window. Atsu represented Ghana at the 2014 world cup in Brazil.

The home based Super Eagles currently participating in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament in Rwanda will today play their Guinea counterparts in their last group game. The match will start by 3pm Nigerian time and will be played at the Rubavu Stadium, Rubavu. The center referee will be Noureddine el-Jaafari, a Moroccan. El-Jaafari will be assisted by Theogene Ndagijimana from Rwanda and Mark Ssonko from Uganda. Nigeria need at least a draw to qualify for the quarterfinals. Good luck to the Super Eagles and more goals to Chisom Chikatara who has scored four goals so far in the tournament.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang says he was hurt after Yaya Toure said it was indecent to give the Gabon forward the African Player of the Year award. In a vote of coaches and technical directors of Caf nations, Aubameyang got 143 points, with Toure on 136 and Swansea midfielder Ayew on 112. Manchester City midfielder Toure said the decision had brought “shame” on the continent, while Swansea’s Andre Ayew also questioned the move. Ivory Coast’s Toure and Ghana’s Ayew reached the African Cup of Nations final, and Gabon went out early. “I was hurt by what was said,” Borussia Dortmund striker Aubameyang said. “It’s a shame.” “The award is based on the whole year and not just the African Cup of Nations,” added Aubameyang, who is currently the leading scorer in the Bundesliga with 18 goals.

I still cannot understand how this CAF award works especially when someone like the legendary Jay Jay Okocha failed to win it after making the last three contenders list for three times and having wonderful seasons at those periods. Another one was when Samuel Eto’o failed to win it in a season he won treble (La Liga, Spanish Cup and Champions League) with Barcelona. What do you guys think?

Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova for the 18th time in a row to reach the Australian Open semi-finals. The American defending champion, seeded number one and chasing a 22nd Grand Slam title, saw off fifth seed Sharapova 6-4 6-1 at Melbourne Park. It is 12 years since Williams lost to the Russian, and the world number one moves on to face fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the last four. In the men’s draw, Roger Federer beat Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4. The Swiss 17-time Grand Slam champion will play top seed Novak Djokovic or seventh seed Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Jurgen Klopp has pledged to end Liverpool’s terrible defending from set-pieces once and for all. The Reds have struggled to protect their penalty area from corners and free-kicks all season, conceding eight times from corners in the Premier League alone. Klopp’s side conceded all four goals from set-pieces in a 5-4 thriller against Norwich at Carrow Road on Saturday and the German insists it is a problem they “cannot ignore” any longer. “It’s not too late to learn and now it’s time to. We are always working on our weaknesses,” Klopp said. “We spoke about it really intensively. It was a good talk together; not the first one, but hopefully it will be the last one. “It’s not about the formation, nor the quality of the set-plays. It’s about what we are doing in these situations. Against Norwich, we defended the first ball well but struggled then with the second or third. “For the goal of (Dieumerci) Mbokani, there was still a full box so we could have pushed up earlier and left them offside. That would have been a clever idea.”

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Chelsea midfielder Ramires is close to a move to Chinese side Jiangsu Suning. The 28-year-old Brazilian signed from Benfica for about £17m in 2010, is expected to join the Super League side for a fee which could reach £25m. Ramires signed a new four-year deal in October 2015 but has only started seven Premier League games in a campaign in which the Blues have struggled. Jiangsu finished ninth in China’s top tier in 2015 and are managed by former Blues defender Dan Petrescu. They also won the Chinese Cup in 2015 – the biggest honour in their history. In his time at Stamford Bridge, Ramires has won the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Europa League

Men’s quarter-finals:

Novak Djokovic (Serb) vs Kei Nishikori (Jpn)

Roger Federer (Swi) vs Tomas Berdych (Cze)

Gael Monfils (Fra) vs Milos Raonic (Can)

David Ferrer (Spa) vs Andy Murray (GB)

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The Russian Olympic Committee has banned four athletes for doping, including a former European silver medalist. Irina Maracheva, silver medal winner in the 800m at the 2012 European championships, received a two-year ban, as did race-walker Anna Lukyanova, for doping violations based on documents handed over by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). There were also four-year bans for runners Maria Nikolaeva and Yelena Nikulina.. Russia is struggling to overturn a suspension on its track and field team that could see it miss the Rio Olympics.

Adidas, the IAAF’s (the International Association of Athletics Federations) biggest sponsor, has told athletics’ world governing body it is to terminate their sponsorship deal four years early. The sportswear giant informed the IAAF of its decision last week and it is understood to be a direct result of the doping scandal sweeping the sport. Neither Adidas nor the IAAF confirmed the split but both issued short statements. They both referenced the “reform process” currently under way as the IAAF attempts to come to terms with a number of damaging revelations. They also claimed they were “in close contact” with each other, with the IAAF insisting it was in close contact with “all its sponsors and partners”. The 11-year sponsorship deal with Adidas was due to run until 2019 and was reportedly worth $33m. This means the projected lost revenue for the IAAF and its agency Dentsu over the next four years will be more than $30m.

Argentina’s Superclasico descended into chaos as five players were sent off in River Plate’s 1-0 off-season friendly win over Boca Juniors. Boca were down to eight men by the 78th minute, before River’s Jonathan Maidana, for headbutting Carlos Tevez, and Leonardo Pisculichi saw red. “Neither of us behaved well,” Tevez said referring to himself and Maidana. Pisculichi scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 17th minute after Tevez had handballed. League champions Boca also had two players sent off in the 4-2 defeat by Racing Club in Mar del Plata in midweek. “In four days, five sent off, in two matches, we must grow up,” the former West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City forward added.

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Sunday 24 January, 2016:

Everton 1 – 2 Swansea 

Arsenal 0 – 1 Chelsea

Manchester United have confirmed that goalkeeper Victor Valdes has joined Belgian side Standard Liege on loan until the end of the season. Congrats to Victor as he gets the chance to play football again.

Jose Mourinho’s camp have firmly denied claims that the former Chelsea manager wrote a six-page letter to Manchester United stating his case to become the club’s next manager. The Independent on Sunday claimed that former Chelsea manager Mourinho has sent United the letter in which he outlines why he would be a suitable fit for the position, which is currently occupied by under-pressure Dutchman Louis van Gaal. According to the report, Mourinho explains in the letter how he would be prepared to adapt his style of management to suit the demands at Old Trafford, and how he would seek to overhaul the squad. However Jorge Mendes, Mourinho’s agent, strongly denied the existence of the letter. “It doesn’t cross anyone’s mind that a manager such José Mourinho is writing letters to clubs, asking for a job,” said Mendes in a statement. “It’s ridiculous and absolutely nonsense.”

Defending champion Serena Williams will face Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open quarter-finals after both won their last-16 matches on Sunday. Top seed Williams, who beat Sharapova in last year’s final, crushed Margarita Gasparyan 6-2 6-1 in 55 minutes. The 34-year-old American is chasing her 22nd Grand Slam title and seventh in Melbourne. Sharapova, the 2008 champion from Russia, hit 21 aces as she battled to a 7-5 7-5 win over Swiss Belinda Bencic.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his players celebrated Adam Lallana’s stoppage-time winner at Norwich so wildly that the German ended up breaking his glasses. Lallana struck in the 95th minute to seal a 5-4 win moments after Sebastien Bassong had equalised for the Canaries. Klopp was swamped by his players – and his trademark specs slipped off. “I have a second pair of glasses, but I can’t find them,” said Klopp. “It’s hard to find glasses without glasses.” Klopp has broken his glasses before during a match, with that pair residing in his former club Borussia Dortmund’s museum. “We won for the first time against Bayern Munich and Nuri Sahin (who once played for Liverpool on loan from Real Madrid) broke my glasses. Today it was Adam Lallana,” he added.

Saturday 23 January, 2016:

Norwich 4 – 5 Liverpool 

Crystal Palace 1 – 3 Tottenham 

Leicester 3 – 0 Stoke 

Man Utd 0 – 1 Southampton 

Sunderland 1 – 1 Bournemouth 

Watford 2 – 1 Newcastle 

West Brom 0 – 0 Aston Villa 

West Ham 2 – 2 Man City

England boss Roy Hodgson has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of York to mark his 40-year contribution to football management. The 68-year-old was given the honour by the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost Professor Saul Tendler at a graduation ceremony at the university. Hodgson told the audience of graduands and their families: “If there’s one thing I would say to you, and it’s something we try to preach to our football players, have no fear. You have got to believe in yourself. “Be prepared to take chances because the worst that could happen is you might have to accept that it didn’t work out, this challenge you took, and you have to go back to the drawing board and wait for the next chance to come along.”