Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez has been named Player of the Year by the Football Supporters’ Federation. The 26-year-old forward scored 20 goals in 2015 and topped the fans’ vote ahead of runner-up Jamie Vardy, with Sergio Aguero, David De Gea, Harry Kane and John Stones also on the shortlist.
Sierra Leone is able to host football matches again after the African football confederation (CAF) lifted a ban put in place in August 2014 because of the Ebola epidemic. “International football matches and CAF competitions can again be organised in the West African country,” CAF said in a statement. The 45,000 capacity Brookfields National Stadium in Freetown will soon be buzzing again.
Sir Alex Ferguson is in no doubt Jose Mourinho will revive Chelsea’s flagging fortunes. The reigning champions have lost eight of their first 15 games and languish in 14th place but Ferguson said: “There are signs he is getting back to a balanced level although they lost on Saturday. “I think all good leaders will eventually find a solution. I know the guy and I know the work he has done in football and I can’t see it lasting long, I can’t see it.”
West Ham’s on-loan winger and Nigerian international, Victor Moses will undergo a scan on Tuesday to discover the extent of his hamstring problem, after limping off during the goalless draw at Manchester United on Saturday.
Sunday 6 December 2015:
Newcastle 2 – 0 Liverpool
Saturday 5 Decemeber 2015:
Stoke 2 – 0 Man City
Arsenal 3 – 1 Sunderland
Man Utd 0 – 0 West Ham
Southampton 1 – 1 Aston Villa
Swansea 0 – 3 Leicester
Watford 2 – 0 Norwich
West Brom 1 – 1 Tottenham
Chelsea 0 – 1 Bournemouth
Algeria and Nigeria drew 0-0 in their final Group B match of the Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal to make it through to the semi-finals and keep their Olympic hopes alive. The result in Dakar was enough for both teams to qualify with Algeria finishing top of the group and Nigeria ending as runners-up. Egypt’s faint hopes of progressing were dashed after they lost 1-0 to Mali in the other Group B match in M’Bour after Ragab Abdelnabi scored an own-goal in the 18th minute. Saturday’s results mean the semi-final line-up is complete. Nigeria will play the Group A winners Senegal, whilst Algeria will take on the Group A runners-up South Africa. Both semi-finals will be played on Wednesday 9 December. The tournament also serves as a qualifying competition for next year’s Olympic Games with the top three finishers booking a place in Rio.
We said before that he was on the verge but now it’s confirmed that Jimmy Floyd Haselbaink has been appointed as QPR boss after an impressive 13 months at Burton, where he guided them to League One promotion and taking them top of the league this season. He told http://www.qpr.co.uk: “It was not an easy decision to leave Burton, but when you get the opportunity to come somewhere like QPR, with the club where it is and the squad we have at our disposal, it was something I couldn’t turn down. “I feel that this is a club on the up – it has an exciting feeling about it. And I want to keep that feeling going by taking more positive strides forward.” Haselbaink was a great number 9 for Chelsea in his hay days.
Javier Hernandez, sold to Bayer Leverkusen for £7m in the summer, has won the Bundesliga Player of the Month award. The 27-year-old Mexico international has scored six league goals this season – more than Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial have managed combined in the Premier League this season.
Bad news yet again from FIFA. Two FIFA Vice Presidents, Juan Angel Napout, the president of the South American Football Confederation and Alfredo Hawit, the president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football and of the Honduran Football Association have been banned from all football-related activities for 90 days. A statement from the ethics committee said: “The reason for the ban is the indictment issued yesterday by the United States Department of Justice for charges of racketeering, conspiracy and corruption.” Both men had been arrested by US authorities for issues bordering on corruption.
Retired former world champion Floyd “Money Man” Mayweather has just got himself a Tiger for Christmas. He wants fans to help name the female Tiger.
Queens Park Rangers are set to name Burton Albion manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as their new boss. BBC Radio Derby reports that the 43-year-old Dutchman is taking training at the Championship club today. Neil Warnock has been in interim charge at Loftus Road since Chris Ramsey parted company with Rangers on 4 November.
Hasselbaink was a player after my heart during his Chelsea days.
Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is set to return to the Premier League but only as a television pundit. Richard Keys – a presenter for Middle East broadcaster Bein Sports says that Rodgers will be part of their coverage in early January.
He’ll definitely be asked questions about Klopp and the new trend of events at Anfield.
Video footage of Issa Hayatou, the acting president of FIFA appears to show the 69-year-old falling asleep. The Cameroonian’s eyes appear to be closed and his head struggles to stay up before his eyes lit up and darted around the room as if checking to see if anyone had noticed. Unfortunately, they had. It was filmed following his own speech on reforms during a meeting of FIFA’s ExCo held in Zurich.
Sam Ibiam, the first Nigerian national team goalkeeper has died at the age of 90. Ibiam, a native of Ebonyi state who was a born in 1925. In 1949, he was the goalkeeper of the first national football team that toured the United Kingdom playing notable English teams like Liverpool FC. He played alongside the likes of Dan Anyiam, Ewa Henshaw and Teslim Balogun.
Pa Ibiam was known in his playing days as The Cat or The Black Magnet.
Real Madrid could face disqualification from the Copa del Rey after fielding an ineligible player in their fourth-round win over Cadiz, report Spanish media. Denis Cheryshev, 24, gave Real the lead but the Russian should have been serving a one-game ban, say reports. Newspaper AS has published a document showing he received three bookings in the domestic cup competition while on loan at Villarreal last season. This first-leg tie was the first opportunity he had to serve the ban. Real boss Rafael Benitez was manager of Valencia when they were disqualified from the Copa del Rey – the Spanish Cup – having played too many non-European Union players in a tie against Novelda in 2001. Last season Osasuna were kicked out of the tournament for playing an ineligible player after Unai Garcia was selected in the win over Mirandes despite having been sent off the previous season. Cadiz will have to report the situation to the Spanish Football Federation on Thursday. The club’s Twitter feed, said during the game: “The Board of Directors of @Cadiz-CF will meet at the end of the match.” Cheryshev was taken off moments after half-time as a double from Isco secured victory for the 19-time Copa del Rey winners, with Kike Marquez scoring a late goal for the hosts.
Emmanuel Adebayor is still earning a remarkable £175,000 a week despite not playing football. The striker was released by Tottenham in September after not being included in their Premier League and Europa League squads but the club are still paying his £100,000 a week wages with his contract not ending until June. Manchester City are also still contributing the £75,000 on top due to the 2012 deal that took him to Spurs.
FIFA will debate a proposal to expand the World Cup from 32 teams to 40. The change can be approved by FIFA’s executive committee without consent from the 209 member associations, and could come into effect from 2026. The proposal will be discussed later on Thursday in Zurich, where a meeting is taking place focused on reforms of world football’s governing body. Earlier, two “high-ranking” FIFA officials were arrested in the Swiss city on suspicion of taking bribes. The pair, yet to be named, are alleged to have taken money for selling marketing rights in connection with football tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches. They were arrested on the opening day of FIFA’s Exco meeting, at which the potential expansion of the World Cup for the first time since 1998 will be discussed. France ’98 featured 32 teams, up from the 24 that had qualified for every World Cup since 1982. An additional eight entrants would create an extra 32 matches, which could require the month-long tournament to be extended by a week. The first round of the tournament, which sees teams split into eight groups of four, would also need to be adjusted. The European Championship – to be held in France in June – will include 24 teams, a rise from the 16 to have taken part in every tournament since 1996.
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of murder after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict. He killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after shooting her four times through a locked toilet door. He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail. Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder. It was earlier incorrectly reported that the court had ruled the manslaughter verdict would remain. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court did not correctly apply the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years but judges can apply some discretion. South African law does not make provision for someone to be placed under house arrest for more than five years, so Pistorius will be going back to prison.
Karim Benzema has been warned by the French Prime Minister that he could lose his place on the French national team. Benzema is embroiled in a sex-tape case involving team-mate Mathieu Valbuena, whom he is accused of blackmailing. Speaking on French radio, PM Manuel Valls said “a great athlete should be exemplary. If he is not, he has no place within the France team.”
Chelsea have submitted a planning application for a new 60,000 capacity stadium at Stamford Bridge. In a message to supporters and neighbours on their website, the club said “a planning application for a new stadium at Stamford Bridge with an expanded seating capacity has been submitted. This follows a successful consultation process during which we received very helpful feedback. This application will now be examined by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
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