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March 2000 Stefan Schwarz (Sweden), David Batty (England), Graham Le Saux (England) and Luis Enrique (Spain) will all miss Euro 2000 due to injury. Valencia forward Adrian Ilie will be out for 4 weeks with a thigh muscle injury which means Valencia need Lopez to be on top form if they are to beat Lazio in their Champions League clashes starting next week. Olympiakos have banned Slovenian forward Zlatko Zahovic for the rest of the season. Zahovic swore at coach Alberto Bigon after being substituted in Sunday's league match. Two more Leeds players have been charged over the assault of Asian teenager outside a nightclub in January. Defender Michael Duberry has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and reserve team striker Tony Hackworth has been charged with GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm). A rich Glasgow Rangers fan will give the club £20 million to help them become a force in Europe. South African businessman Dave King will hand over the money to Rangers Chairman David Murray. King has been appointed a non executive director at the club. 30 March 2000 Leeds and Tottenham have been fined £150,000 following a brawl during a Premiership match in February at Elland Road. 29 March 2000 Four Four Two magazine surveyed 52 British managers to find the best managers of all time. Here are the embarrassing results : 1. Alex Ferguson 2. Bill Shankly 3. Brian Clough 4. Matt Busby 5. Alf Ramsey 6. Bob Paisley 7. Jock Stein 8. Bill Nicholson 9. Don Revie 10. Marcello Lippi 11. Bobby Robson 12. Jim Smith 13. Terry Venables 14. Rinus Michels 15. Sven Goran Eriksson 16. Herbert Chapman 17. Arsene Wenger 18. Graham Taylor 19. Joe Mercer 20. John King Premium TV, a subsidiary of NTL, have taken a 5.5% share in Middlesbrough. The deal makes Premium TV the exclusive worldwide agent for certain media and commercial rights. Seven Leicester City players have been fined for irresponsible distribution of Worthington Cup final tickets. Some of the tickets ended up in the hands of rival supporters and several fights, albeit minor, broke out. "Beckham is free to negotiate but if we can't reach an agreement he will be put on the transfer market.". Martin Edwards, tight fisted chairman of Man United Super brat Nicholas Anelka has apologised to Real Madrid for his recent childish behaviour. Swiss International has been fined £150,000 by FIFA for walking out on Fenerbahce last October over fears of earthquakes and problems at the club. Yakin will have to pay Fenerbahce £100,000 and the remaining £50,000 will be given to victims of the earthquakes in Turkey. 28 March 2000 Milan have transfer listed goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi following a row with coach Alberto Zaccheroni and Vice President Adriano Galliano. Rossi was furious when he found out that Christian Abbiati would start in goal against Juventus last Friday. Rossi's sale may see Milan recall Brazilian goalkeeper Dida, currently on loan to Corinthians. Chelsea have signed 17 year old German striker Sebastien Kneissl from Eintracht Frankfurt. He will join next season. Barcelona midfielder Ronald de Boer will be out for six weeks with a groin injury Roma will float on the Milan stock exchange in early April. Zidane, Candela and Barthez have pulled out of Wednesday's friendly against Scotland. 26 March 2000 Milan defender Luigi Sala fractured his nose in a collision with team-mate Christian Abbiati during Saturday's victory over Juventus. Abbiati lost a tooth. Milan and Juventus will tour South Africa in May. They will take on Sundowns and Ajax Cape Town Milan & Inter are interested in Marseille midfielder Stephan Dalmat. 24 March 2000 Sepp Bladder and Michel Platini have made changes to their plans for a international calendar. Originally they wanted the football season worldwide to run from February to November starting from next season but European federations opposed the move. Now their plan, to be implemented in 2004, will see 38 weeks set aside for club league and cup competitions, six weeks for international competitions, four weeks for player holidays and four weeks for pre-season. They also want to introduce a winter break. This is one of the many ridiculous ideas that dumb and dumber have had to change/drop. Bladder's other proposals included holding the World Cup every two years and plans to introduce professional referees, like that will make a difference. Not to be outdone Platini wanted to ban tackling. Duisburg have sacked coach Friedhelm Funkel. Assistant coach Seppo Eichkorn takes over. Juventus defender Zoran Mirkovic will not be a part of Yugoslavia's Euro 2000 squad as he is suspended for the first three games. Valencia have signed Rosernborg striker John Carew for £5.3 million. Champions League Draw Quarter-Finals 1. Chelsea V Barcelona 2. Valencia V Lazio 3. Real Madrid V Man United 4. Porto V Bayern Munich 1st Leg : 4/5 April, 2nd Leg : 18/19 April Semi-Finals Winner of Chelsea/Barcelona V Valencia/Lazio Winner of Real Madrid/Man United V Porto/Bayern Munich 1st Leg : 2/3 May, 2nd Leg : 9/10 May UEFA CUP Semi-Final Draw Galatasaray V Leeds Arsenal V Lens 1st Leg : April 6th, 2nd Leg : April 20th 23 March 2000 Parma duo Hernan Crespo and Lillian Thuram, both were expected to leave the club at the end of the season, have extended their contracts until 2005. 18 year old Joe Cole, considered to be the next superstar of England football, has extended his contract with West Ham until 2004. Austria coach Otto Baric has urged Arsenal 'keeper Alex Manninger to find a new club if he wants a place in the national team. "I have given Manninger some good advice, I've told him to look for another club.". Manninger gave several outstanding performances at Arsenal last season but this season his form has dipped and he finds himself benched in favour of fat boy David Seamen. Predictably Wenger told Baric to stay of his business. Giovanni Trapattoni will leave Fiorentina at the end of the season. 22 March 2000 Milan midfielder Zvonimir Boban will be out for the rest of the season following surgery on a knee injury. Ajax have sacked coach Jan Wouters. 21 March 2000 If you are wondering why there has been a lack of news lately it's simply because there hasn't been much news to report. We only reports news, unlike other sites we will not post ridiculous rumours just to fill space. We have a group of world-wide correspondents and take the majority of news and rumours from official sources such as the various Teletext services in Europe, CNN, Rai, BBC, ITV, Sky Sports and newspapers around the World. Unlike other sites we have already listed transfers for next season, based on reports from the aforementioned sources. Here is quick run down of the major rumours across Europe : Milan - As far as the Italian press is concerned Lillian Thuram will join Milan in the summer. Francesco Totti wants to leave Roma due to the arrival of Nakata and Emerson (who will join next season) and Milan seems to be his most likely destination. Dynamo's Kyiv striker Serhiy Rebrov is almost certain to partner Shevchenko in attack next season. Coach Alberto Zaccheroni will be sacked at the end of the season with Claudio Ranieri, Spanish national team coach Jose Camacho and Frank Rijkaard favourites to take over. Man United - Alex Ferguson is still looking for goalkeepers with Hamburg's penalty King Butt and PSV's Dudek top of the shopping list. The club have also been linked with a move for Tottenham defender Sol Campbell. David Beckham is likely to stay at the club. Barcelona - Have already signed Celta Vigo goalkeeper Dutruel. Marc Overmars is expected to arrive in the summer from Arsenal. Other targets include Real Zaragoza striker Savo Milosevic. Real Madrid - Their main priority is a new coach with Milan's Alberto Zaccheroni one of the favourites. Thomas Helveg and Roberto Ayala could follow him from Milan. Juventus - Very little to report. Cagliari playmaker Fabian O'Neill has been signed possibly to replace Zidane. Coach Carlo Ancelotti is a big admirer of Parma striker Hernan Crespo and would love to take him to Turin. Juve have been continually linked with Leeds' playmaker Harry Kewell but he is 'not for sale'. Lazio - One thing is certain, barring a miracle Ericksson will be sacked. Once again Alberto Zaccheroni is linked with the coaches job. Claudio Lopez is expected to arrive from Valencia. Lazio have been linked with a move for Parma's Buffon and a Russian 'keeper whose name I keep forgetting. Valladolid striker Shoji Jo will miss between 5-7 months after suffering a knee injury in a friendly against China last week. Coventry coach Gordon Strachan has signed a 5 year contract with the club. Sheffield Wednesday coach Danny Wilson has been sacked. Reserve team coach Peter Shreeves takes over. "Ferguson is the best manager in the World in charge of the best team in the World. He has given English football a new mystique.". Valencia coach Hector Cuper pays a well timed compliment ahead of Valencia's crucial Champions League clash against the reigning European Champions. 19 March 2000 England have arranged a friendly away to France on 2 September 2000. The FA are also negotiating to arrange an away friendly against Italy in November. "If you were going to look for a young manager capable of maintaining success here, David would have to be one of the front runners.". Alex Ferguson 'nominates' Leeds coach David O'Leary as his successor. 17 March 2000 5 Sunderland players have signed new contracts with the club including top scorer Kevin Phillips who has signed a 5 year contract. The others are Thomas Sorensen (GK), Chris Makin (DF), Gavin McCann (MF) and Alex Rae (MF). OFI Crete coach Eugene Gerard will retire at the end of the season. Kaiserslautern midfielder Ciriaco Sforza has refused surgery to repair knee cartilage damage and will try alternative methods. A group lead by Enzo Scifo has taken control of Belgian club Charleroi. 15 March 2000 Leeds defender Jonathan Woodgate and midfielder Lee Bowyer have been charged with GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) following an incident outside a nightclub which left an Asian teenager with serious injuries. Leeds have promised to take appropriate action (whatever that means) if the players are found guilty. The FA will not allow either play to represent England until after the court case, presumably if they are cleared. 14 March 2000 Serie A - It's About Football Last week 4 Italian teams were knocked out of the UEFA Cup - Parma, Juventus, Roma and Udinese which meant for the first time in 16 years, Serie A did not have not have any representatives in the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup. Lazio and Fiorentina are struggling to qualify for the Quarter-Final stages of the Champions League, Champions Milan and Parma having already been knocked out. Serie A's domination of European competition appears to be over. It's not a question of money, despite the new TV deals in Spain, Serie A clubs are still the biggest spenders in the transfer marker and it's not about players because Serie A clubs still has the greatest concentration of World Class and International Class players. It's about football. Serie A clubs have become increasingly direct in recent seasons. Milan and Lazio play longball. With the exceptions of Boban and Veron these clubs have very little flair and creativity. Juventus have become set piece merchants, the majority of their goals coming from Del Piero's corners, penalties and delivery from free kicks. Parma's only genuine creative player is Ortega who is lost without a midfield to protect and give him the ball. Only Inter, Roma and Udinese play good football. I can't remember the last time I saw Milan or Lazio string together more than 6-7 passes. Even teams in the English Premiership play a better passing game than their Serie A counterparts. Serie A coaches need to stop taking shortcuts and get their teams playing a controlled passing game. There is no point in having some of the best players in the World if all they do is chase long balls. Real Madrid have fined Super-Brat Nicolas Anelka £260,000 (45 days wages) and suspended him for 45 days after he skipped training over complaints about team tactics. France have arranged a home friendly with German on the 14th of February 2001. Arsenal's Nwanko Kanu has signed a new £25,000 per week contract with the club. Dortmund have transfer listed midfielder Sergei Barbaraz after he partied the day before a match last month. 13 March 2000 Real Madrid officials will meet on Monday and decide what to do with Super-Brat Anelka after he skipped training for the third successive day. Real only have themselves to blame, they knew of his problems at Arsenal. I expect Real may consider getting the spoilt bastard some professional help. "He is guilty of indiscipline and must pay the price. Something does not turn around properly in his head. If it continues like this the situation will worsen. I simply don't understand his attitude.". Lorenzo Sanz, President of Real Madrid 12 March 2000 "When we (Liverpool) played Leeds 2 or 3 weeks ago there were six or seven players under 22, English players, on the pitch. We haven't got 6 or 7 (young) players in Germany in the whole league". Dietmar Hamann on the lack of young talent in Germany. 11 March 2000 "Real Madrid cannot accept attitudes which are detrimental to discipline and the proper running of the club.". Real Madrid drop Anelka after he boycotts Friday training over tactics. Didn't take long for him to put his up his arse again did it? Some ridiculous rumours in Italy link Milan and Parma is a swap move which would see Crespo join Milan and Bierhoff join Parma. I can't see Parma trading Crespo for Bierhoff and it's likely Crespo will join Ancelotti at Juve next season. "First he supported South Africa, later England, now Germany. Why doesn't he say what his true reason is for being against the Brazilian bid?". Zico blasts Pele for his continual criticism of Brazil's bid to host the 2006 World Cup George Best will stay in hospital for a week due to suspected liver failure. A French finance magazine, Capital, claims 26 of the last 30 French league championships were rigged. Pavel Sadyrin will succeed Makhmud Rakhimov as coach of Uzbekistan. Rakhimov died in a car crash in December. Liverpool have complted the signing of Emile Heskey. World Soccer magazine have once again screwed up the advert for this site so next issue we will be given a boxed advert as compensation. For those of you who run commercial sites I will say advertising in magazines doesn't increase traffric but you make great contacts. 9 March 2000 Leicester have agreed a fee of £11 million with Liverpool for star striker Emile Heskey. Liverpool expect to complete the deal later today. Man United's stock market value has risen to over £1 billion. "When a guy tackles 20cm from the leg that's not a foul. I say well done to Beckham the referee fell into his trap.". Michael Pavon, captain of Bordeaux. 8 March 2000 Marcus Alonso has resigned as coach of Sevilla. Reserve team coach Juan Carlos Alvarez is his replacement. Luis Enrique is out for the rest of the season and will also miss Euro 2000 after rupturing cartiliage in his right knee against Porto last week. Ruud van Nistelrooy is out for 6 weeks after picking up an injury in a friendly match against Denmark's Silkeborg. Rennes striker El Hadji Diouf will appear in court on April 12th following his part in a car accident in which 4 people were injured. Rayo Vallecano 'keeper Kasey Keller is out for a month with a fractured collarbone. Marcus Alonso has resigned as coach of Sevilla. Reserve team coach Juan Carlos Alvarez is his replacement. Luis Enrique is out for the rest of the season and will also miss Euro 2000 after rupturing cartilage in his right knee against Porto last week. Ruud van Nistelrooy is out for 6 weeks after picking up an injury in a friendly match against Denmark's Silkeborg. Rayo Vallecano 'keeper Kasey Keller is out for a month with a fractured collarbone. Rennes striker El Hadji Diouf will appear in court on April 12th following his part in a car accident in which 4 people were injured. 6 March 2000 Ronaldo will be back in action next month. He will return to full training within the next two weeks. Tottenham have pulled out of the deal to sign John Hartson following a medical. Malaga midfielder Edgar could be out for the rest of the season with a ligament injury. 5 March 2000 Here is a list of the top 5 partners for Alan Shearer based on the votes of the 20 Premiership managers. 1) Owen 2) Cole 3) Philips 4) Fowler 5) Sheringham Ian Porterfield is the new coach of Trinidad and Tobago. Previous coach Bertille St Clair was sacked after the team's semi-final loss in the Gold Cup. Egypt's national team coach, Gerard Gili, has been sacked for taking an extended holiday. Archive Mid season transfers for the French, German, Italian and Spanish leagues are now available to download from the archive section. Next season's transfers are now listed for these leagues. "I'm coming (ooer!) that's all I've got to say. I've already told Bayer Leverkusen that I want to play in the red and yellow shirt next year.". Emerson insists that he will join Roma next season despite protests from his club. Juventus forward Daniel Fonseca is out for the rest of the season following surgery on a knee ligament injury. Some old news I forgot to mention. Masashi Nakayama has broken George Hall's world record for the fastest hat trick ever recorded. The Japanese striker scored his 3 goals in 3:15 minutes time in Japan's 9-0 stomping of Brunei. Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale has admitted making a £5 million bid for a striker. The English press speculate that his target is Rosenborg's John Carew. Tottenham have made a £7 million bid for Wimbledon striker John Hartson. 4 March 2000 FIFA will not ban players who test positive for nandrolone after a study showed that men naturally produce the substance. Bayern Munich, Milan, Man United and Real Madrid will compete in a tournament to mark Bayern's centenary between 4-5 August. Torino defender Djibrill Diawara has been given a 4 match ban for kicking and 'spitting' at Bari defender Luigi Garyza after Garyza pushed him in the face. I reported on the incident earlier in the week and I did not see Diawara spit on Garyza. Garyza has been handed a one match ban. Bari have also been fined for racist chants by their fans. Claudio Ranieri has quit as coach of Atletico Madrid, Ramdomir Antic takes over for his 3rd spell in charge or is it his 4th? Boudewijn Zenden and Luis Enrique will be out for up to a month with minor injuries. Berti Vogts has applied for the position of Celtic coach. The Presidents of Fiorentina, Venezia and Cagliari have been fined for criticising referees. BSKYB have bought a 9.9% stake in Chelsea for £40m. BSKYB already have stakes in Leeds, Man United, Man City and Sunderland. Peterborough midfielder Helgi Danielsson has returned to the club following a short loan spell at Milan. 3 March 2000 Slaven Bilic has been released by Everton and rejoined former club Hadjuk Split. Daniel Prodan has left Glasgow Rangers to join Steau Bucharest on loan. Paul Gascoigne has been fined £5000 and banned for 3 games for elbowing George Boateng during Middlesbrough home game against Aston Villa last month. Dynamo Kyiv coach Valeri Lobanovsky will now also coach the Ukrainian national team. "We back the idea of some rationalisation of the international calendar but to suggest total harmonisation in the way being floated at the moment is not the right way forward.". FA Premier League Spokesman on Platini's calls for every league to have 18 teams and the season to run from February - November. Australia will play some of their home internationals in London in a move that will make calling up European based players for internationals easier. |