Ligue 1 » News » Football: Falcao joins Colombia squad despite ankle injury

Football: Falcao joins Colombia squad despite ankle injuryVitinhos Herz schlägt künftig für CSKA Moskau

Monaco striker Radamel Falcao has joined up with the Colombia squad for a World Cup qualifying double-header despite suffering an ankle injury at the weekend.

The 27-year-old turned his right ankle when landing awkwardly after competing for a high ball with Marseille defender Nicolas Nkoulou in Sunday night’s game at the Stade Velodrome.

He had earlier scored his side’s equaliser in a match the principality club went on to win 2-1.

“Along with James Rodriguez, Falcao has been called-up by his national team and must go, even if it’s just for them to assess his injury,” a Monaco spokesman told AFP.

Monaco coach Claudio Ranieri said after Sunday’s game that Falcao had “a badly inflamed ankle”.

Colombia sit second in the South American qualifying competition for next year’s World Cup in Brazil, three points behind leaders Argentina with a game in hand.

They are due to host Ecuador in Barranquilla on Friday before travelling to take on Uruguay in Montevideo next Tuesday.

Primera División » News » Football: Osasuna fire coach after poor Liga start

Football: Osasuna fire coach after poor Liga startGareth Bale (l.) wurde bei Real Madrid offiziell vorgestellt

Spanish side Osasuna fired their coach Jose Luis Mendilibar on Tuesday after a disappointing start to the season left them bottom of La Liga, the club said.

“We have analysed the play and results of the first three matches of this season along with nine games of last season and we have come to this decision,” the club’s president Miguel Archanco said in a statement.

It was the first sacking of a manager in Spain’s top flight this season.

The club’s board took the decision “unanimously”, the statement said.

Archanco said the club had four possible replacements in mind, but did not name them. He added that assistant coach Alfredo Sanchez will take charge until one is chosen.

Mendilibar’s sacking followed the Pamplona club’s 3-0 home defeat to Villareal on Saturday and earlier defeats to Athletic Bilbao (2-0) and Granada (2-1).

Premier League » News » Football: Moyes backs Fellaini to make a splash

Football: Moyes backs Fellaini to make a splashBill Shankly ist in Liverpool unvergessen

Manchester United manager David Moyes vowed on Tuesday that Marouane Fellaini will prove a success at the club after his transfer deadline-day switch from Everton.

Moyes, who signed Fellaini during his time as Everton manager, had met with disappointment at every turn in the transfer window until he completed a £27.5 million ($42.7 million, 32.4 million euros) deal for the Belgian midfielder shortly before the deadline passed.

The fee was £4 million more than United would have had to pay had they triggered a clause in Fellaini’s contract that expired at the end of July and made him the club’s fourth most expensive acquisition after Dimitar Berbatov, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney.

However, having spent four years working with Fellaini at Everton, Moyes is confident he will improve his squad.

“Marouane is not someone you want to be playing against,” Moyes told United’s in-house television channel, MUTV.

“He has attributes other people don’t have. And with those qualities he has, I am sure he will be a big player for Manchester United.”

Following Paul Scholes’s retirement and with Darren Fletcher still recovering from a chronic bowel condition, United had looked short in central midfield, and Moyes says Fellaini will give him a variety of options in the middle of the pitch.

“He can play higher up the field if we need him to, just behind a main striker,” said Moyes.

“He can play as a defensive or holding midfield player. In fact he is comfortable in any position in the middle of the field.

“It was definitely a position where people would say we were short, not just of numbers, with the likes of Paul Scholes retiring and Darren Fletcher not being ready to come back just now. I am glad we have got him.”

Fellaini is currently on international duty with Belgium, but could make his United debut at home to Crystal Palace when the Premier League resumes on September 14.

Premier League » News » Football: Moyes backs Fellaini to make a splash

Football: Moyes backs Fellaini to make a splashKaká wird beim AC Mailand euphorisch begrüßt

Manchester United manager David Moyes vowed on Tuesday that Marouane Fellaini will prove a success at the club after his transfer deadline-day switch from Everton.

Moyes, who signed Fellaini during his time as Everton manager, had met with disappointment at every turn in the transfer window until he completed a £27.5 million ($42.7 million, 32.4 million euros) deal for the Belgian midfielder shortly before the deadline passed.

The fee was £4 million more than United would have had to pay had they triggered a clause in Fellaini’s contract that expired at the end of July and made him the club’s fourth most expensive acquisition after Dimitar Berbatov, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney.

However, having spent four years working with Fellaini at Everton, Moyes is confident he will improve his squad.

“Marouane is not someone you want to be playing against,” Moyes told United’s in-house television channel, MUTV.

“He has attributes other people don’t have. And with those qualities he has, I am sure he will be a big player for Manchester United.”

Following Paul Scholes’s retirement and with Darren Fletcher still recovering from a chronic bowel condition, United had looked short in central midfield, and Moyes says Fellaini will give him a variety of options in the middle of the pitch.

“He can play higher up the field if we need him to, just behind a main striker,” said Moyes.

“He can play as a defensive or holding midfield player. In fact he is comfortable in any position in the middle of the field.

“It was definitely a position where people would say we were short, not just of numbers, with the likes of Paul Scholes retiring and Darren Fletcher not being ready to come back just now. I am glad we have got him.”

Fellaini is currently on international duty with Belgium, but could make his United debut at home to Crystal Palace when the Premier League resumes on September 14.

United have also announced the signing of 17-year-old full-back Saidy Janko from FC Zurich for an undisclosed fee.

Saidy, who was born in Switzerland to a Gambian father and Swiss-Italian mother, recently underwent a trial spell at United’s Carrington training base.

Premier League » News » Football: Wenger ‘confidence’ enough to convince Ozil

Football: Wenger ‘confidence’ enough to convince OzilPer Foulelfmeter erzielte Ivica Banovic den Führungstreffer für Cottbus

New Arsenal signing Mesut Ozil admits that he had no intention of leaving Real Madrid until realising that he risked being left on the sidelines in the Spanish capital.

Ozil saw Gareth Bale complete his transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to the Santiago Bernabeu earlier on Monday before agreeing to move to the Emirates Stadium for a reported £42.4 million ($66 million, 50 million euros).

And the Germany playmaker later said in an interview with the German Football Association’s official website, http://www.dfb.de, that he agreed to the move after it became clear that he no longer figured in the plans of Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“At that moment (a few days ago), I was certain that I would stay at Real Madrid, but afterwards I realised that the coach and the board no longer had confidence in me,” he said. .

“I am a player who needs that confidence and the possibility came up to go to Arsenal, which is why I chose to go there.”

Now he is looking forward to linking up with international colleagues such as Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski in north London, as well as working for Arsenal’s German-speaking manager Arsene Wenger.

“Arsene Wenger showed confidence in me and now I will be able to continue progressing as a player. I want to be on top form for the World Cup,” the former Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen player, 24, said.

“I spoke to him for a long time on the telephone and he explained to me how he thinks football should be played.

“Naturally, I am delighted to now be able to play with Podolski and Mertesacker. I am really satisfied with this new challenge, I know already that they have brilliant supporters, that the stadium is super and that there is class in the team.”

Ozil is currently with the Germany squad preparing for the World Cup qualifying double-header against Austria on Friday in Munich and the Faroe Islands away next Tuesday.

His Arsenal debut could come in their next Premier League fixture, at Sunderland on Saturday, September 14.

Conference » News » NFL: Ravens begin Super Bowl repeat bid against Broncos

NFL: Ravens begin Super Bowl repeat bid against Broncos

With popularity undimmed by a series of hard hits off the field, the National Football League opens the 2013 season on Thursday with a mouth-watering match-up of multi-millionaire quarterbacks.

Joe Flacco leads the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens into Denver, where Peyton Manning and the Broncos are hotly tipped contenders to be hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy come February.

After two years featuring labor disputes — between owners and players and then between owners and officials — and the pay-for-injury “bounty” scandal that saw New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton banned for all of last season, the league has done all it could to ensure there is little to distract from on-field action.

A week before kickoff, the NFL reached a settlement worth $765 million in a lawsuit filed by more than 4,500 former players over concussion injuries — a payout less than the NFL’s income from any of its television rights deals.

The settlement won’t end the discussion on traumatic brain injuries in the violent sport. But with it, the league avoided acknowledging liability for such injuries affecting the long-term health of its veterans.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will still have to grapple with the league’s inability to agree with players on testing for human growth hormone, and the first-degree murder charge against former Patriots receiver Aaron Hernandez is a blemish on the league’s image.

However, on-field drama is set to push those issues to the back burner in a season that will include three games outside the United States — two in London and one in Canada and culminate with the Super Bowl at Met Life Stadium on February 2.

It all starts in Denver, where Flacco will be eager to show he’s worth the $120 million contract he received in the afterglow of the Ravens’ title triumph over San Francisco.

It’s a re-worked Ravens squad who will take the field, without retired defensive stalwart and emotional leader Ray Lewis.

The Broncos have endured some turmoil, too, with linebacker Von Miller suspended for six games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Nevertheless, four-time Most Valuable Player Manning is widely expected to guide Denver to the playoffs as he did last year in his return from multiple neck surgeries.

As always, quarterbacks are key. Among the veterans, Manning, New England’s Tom Brady, New Orleans’ Drew Brees, Manning’s younger brother Eli of the New York Giants and Aaron Rodgers at Green Bay have shown they have the ability to take a team all the way.

Matt Ryan, whose Falcons fell to San Francisco in last season’s National Conference title game, inked a $103.75 million, five-year deal in July and will try to take Atlanta further this season.

Colin Kaepernick, whose 49ers felled the Falcons before losing to the Ravens in the Super Bowl, will try to build on his breakout 2012 campaign, but San Francisco will face tough opposition in the NFC West from the Seattle Seahawks and second-year star quarterback Russell Wilson.

Two other sophomore signal-callers in the spotlight will be Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck and Washington’s Robert Griffin III.

Brady can be expected to lead perennial AFC East powerhouse New England with his usual aplomb. But he will be without four of his top five targets from 2012. Tight end Rob Gronkowski is on the roster, but it’s not clear when he will be able to play in the wake of back surgery.

In the AFC North, the Ravens could have a tough time defending their title in a division that has seen defensive standouts Cincinnati shore up their offense. Pittsburgh can always contend if quarterback Ben Roethlisberger stays healthy.

Luck and the Colts should again figure strongly in the AFC South, and while Denver are widely expected to head the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs are tipped by many to turn things around from a dismal 2012 thanks to the arrival of new coach Andy Reid and former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.

Tight division battles loom in the NFC, including a likely slugfest in the NFC East.

While the Giants can rest assured in the skills of Eli Manning, Washington will have to see how “RG3” performs after reconstructive knee surgery and the Dallas Cowboys need more big-game consistency from $108 million quarterback Tony Romo.

The 49ers will have their work cut out to hold off Seattle in the NFC West, while in the South the Saints, with Payton back in charge after his “bounty” suspension, will seek to topple the Falcons from the top perch.

Rodgers will try to keep the Packers on top in the NFC North, where the Vikings’ challenge will again depend on running back Adrian Peterson, who last year finished eight yards shy of Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards.

Football » News » Former NBA star Rodman returns to North Korea

Former NBA star Rodman returns to North KoreaDas Wesentliche im Blick

Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman returned to North Korea on Tuesday to visit his “friend” — authoritarian leader Kim Jong-Un — playing down speculation he would try to help free a jailed American.

Kenneth Bae has been held prisoner in the North since November, and Rodman had said last week that he might seek the man’s release.

But speaking to reporters at Beijing airport en route to the North Korean capital Pyongyang, Rodman said “I haven’t been promised anything” on Bae.

“I’m just going to meet my friend Kim the marshal to start a new basketball league going,” Rodman said. “I’m just trying to keep the communication job going.”

The North’s official news agency later announced his arrival in Pyongyang in a one-line statement.

“I am happy to come back here again, to meet my friend,” Rodman was quoted by China’s Xinhua news agency as saying in Pyongyang.

But the agency quoted a North Korean sports ministry source as saying the visit “has nothing to do” with Bae.

The source said the delegation would give a basketball clinic, watch a taekwondo performance and a women’s football match, and travel to the Mount Kumgang resort during its four-day stay.

Xinhua said Rodman had been invited by the North’s sports authority and his entourage included Michael Spavor, a Canadian who runs an education exchange scheme called the Pyongyang Project.

Also accompanying him was Joseph Terwilliger, an associate professor of neuroscience at Columbia University in New York.

Terwilliger’s webpage on a Columbia site shows him in evening dress playing the tuba, and says he teaches workshops on “Logical Reasoning in Human Genetics”.

The Swiss-educated Kim, who is around 30, is reported to be a huge fan of basketball and especially of the Chicago Bulls, with whom Rodman won three NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s.

On a previous visit to North Korea six months ago, Rodman declared himself a “friend for life” of Kim and embraced him after the pair watched a basketball game together in Pyongyang.

Rodman faced ridicule from many US commentators over that trip, which came during high tensions over rocket launches and atomic tests by Kim’s isolated regime.

At the time, in an enthusiastic commentary on the Kim-Rodman meeting, the North’s news agency quoted Rodman — nicknamed “The Worm” — as saying the impasse in US-North Korean relations was “regrettable”.

North Korea and the United States have never had diplomatic ties.

A US envoy had been due to travel to North Korea last week to seek Bae’s release, but Pyongyang cancelled the invitation at short notice. The North said joint US-South Korean military drills had “beclouded the atmosphere”.

Bae, a Korean-American tour operator, was arrested in November 2012 as he entered the hardline communist state’s northeastern port city of Rason.

North Korea, which bans religious proselytising, said Bae was a Christian evangelist who brought in “inflammatory” material.

He was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour earlier this year on charges of trying to topple the North Korea regime. Speculation had mounted that Rodman would try to use his budding friendship with Kim to help free the jailed American.

“I’ll be back over there. I’m going to try to get the guy out,” the heavily tattooed Rodman told celebrity news website TMZ in May.

He also appealed for Bae’s release on Twitter, posting: “I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him ‘Kim’, to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose.”

A spokesman for the current trip’s sponsors, bookmakers Paddy Power, told AFP that Rodman was “not going to North Korea to discuss freeing Kenneth Bae” but that the visit was “another basketball diplomacy tour”.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told AFP: “We have not been contacted by Mr. Rodman about his trip to North Korea.”

Seoul-based activist Do Hee-Yoon has told AFP he suspects Bae was arrested because he had taken photographs of emaciated children in North Korea as part of efforts to appeal for more outside aid.

The specialist news site NK News, headquartered in Washington, reported that Bae was using his tour company to bring Christian missionaries into North Korea.

Football » News » Cricket: CA chief lashes out at racist abuse of Ahmed

Cricket: CA chief lashes out at racist abuse of Ahmed

Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland has lashed out at “racist comments” directed at Muslim Fawad Ahmed after the leg-spinner asked not to wear a kit displaying the logo of beer brand VB.

Pakistan-born Ahmed, who became an Australian citizen in July after his application was fast-tracked, did not have the logo on his shirt during his international debut in last week’s T20 matches against England.

It emerged Tuesday that he had “expressed discomfort with the conflict this created for him, due to his religious beliefs”.

Cricket Australia agreed with his request to wear an unbranded shirt, but this sparked critical comments on the Cricket Australia website and other social media.

“Legitimate reason RELIGION, no its not, it’s a game of cricket, not praying at a church,” said one reaction.

“It is driven by money and fans not by religious fanatics. Those who don’t like the Australian culture should leave, or keep misguided values to themselves.”

Sutherland said he was disgusted with such comments.

“Cricket Australia would like to express its extreme disappointment over racist comments towards Fawad Ahmed on social media… some of which are falsely attributed to former Australian cricketer Dean Jones,” he said in a statement late Tuesday.

“CA does not condone racism in any way, shape or form.

“CA is fully supportive of Fawad’s personal beliefs and he is a valued and popular member of the Australian cricket team and the wider cricket community.”

South African batsman Hashim Amla, also a Muslim, is another player in a similar situation and has been permitted not to wear the logo of Cricket South Africa sponsor Castle, a beer company, on his kit.

The sensitive issue also reared up in English football with striker Papiss Cisse pulling out of Newcastle United’s pre-season tour this year, saying he was not prepared to promote the club’s sponsors, money-lending company Wonga.

But the Senegal international has since donned a Newcastle shirt featuring the logo after talks with the club and Islamic teachers.

The rise of Ahmed, a former refugee who fled his home in the Pakistan border region near Afghanistan, where he said he was targeted by the Taliban, has seen him become a hero to some in Australia’s immigrant communities.

Football » News » Football: AFC hails talks between Israel, Palestinians

Football: AFC hails talks between Israel, PalestiniansKaká wird beim AC Mailand euphorisch begrüßt

The head of Asian football has praised FIFA for bringing Israeli and Palestinian football chiefs together in a drive to end a bitter row over the Jewish state’s security measures.

The heads of the two football associations shook hands Tuesday in landmark talks in Switzerland brokered by the game’s world governing body.

It came just weeks after a politically charged dispute over Israeli entry restrictions on players from Arab nations, which led to the delay of a youth tournament hosted by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA).

The Palestinian territories come under the umbrella of the Malaysia-headquartered Asian Football Confederation (AFC), whose reach extends into the Arab world.

AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa expressed hope that the talks would result in the Palestinians hosting future competitions.

“I hope that both the associations will work towards a bilateral solution to this issue and AFC will no longer have to face the issue of movement of players and officials to and from Palestine in the future,” he said in a statement released late Tuesday.

“I would like to thank FIFA president (Sepp) Blatter for this initiative and would like to see Palestine host more AFC competitions in the future.”

Blatter described the closed-door meeting between PFA president Jibril Rajub and his Israeli opposite Avi Luzon as “historic”.

The PFA has said the security restrictions were hampering the movement of Arab players and smothering development of the game in the Palestinian territories.

It had earlier called on FIFA to suspend Israel from international football over the issue.

Israel says football facilities are sometimes used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets at its cities and warns that sport has been used as a tool to disseminate anti-Israeli propaganda.

“The basic problem in the region is the security problem of Israel and the fact that Palestine is recognised as a full member of FIFA but is not yet recognised as a full member of the United Nations,” said Blatter.

FIFA created a task force in July to address the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Shaikh Salman, a Bahraini, said he hoped the two football governing bodies could reach an agreement by October.

For political reasons, Israel have had a rocky road in international football, having played in Asia until 1974, then Oceania, before joining UEFA in 1991.

Serie A » News » Football: Prandelli to quit after 2014 World Cup: report

Football: Prandelli to quit after 2014 World Cup: reportKaká wird beim AC Mailand euphorisch begrüßt

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli is to step down following the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, according to reports in Italy on Wednesday.

The news comes less than a week before Italy, beaten finalists at Euro 2012, bid to seal their ticket for Brazil with a win at home against the Czech Republic.

Although Prandelli has yet to officially confirm the report in Italian sports paper La Gazzetta dello Sport, several other major media outlets gave weight to the story and have begun naming a list of potential successors.

Prandelli took over from Marcello Lippi in the wake of Italy’s disastrous first-round exit at the 2010 World Cup, and despite continuing to tinker with his squad has since transformed the four-time World Cup winners.

Italy sit top of World Cup qualifying group B with 14 points frok six games, and hold a four and five-point lead on Bulgaria and third-placed Czech Republic respectively.

In Prandelli’s 44 games in charge so far, Italy have won 20 times, drawn 14 and lost 10.

Leading the potential successors, according to the front page report in Gazzetta, is current Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who has coached a number of top sides in Serie A and led Milan to the league title in 1999.

Also on the list is current Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and former Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini.