Swansea keen to hang on to ‘priceless’ Sigurdsson
Baccaglini to take over Palermo
LONDON, June 20, (Agencies): Swansea City have received no firm bids for midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and will do everything in their power to hang on to the “priceless” Iceland international, the Premier League club’s chairman Huw Jenkins has said.
The 27-year-old was one of the few players who shone for Swansea during a troubled campaign in which the club narrowly escaped relegation after winning four of their last five games.
Sigurdsson chipped in with nine league goals and 13 assists, and Jenkins said the club did not want to sell either him or Spanish striker Fernando Llorente, who scored 15 goals.
Sigurdsson
Recently relegated Palermo has announced a change in ownership, with American-born Paul Baccaglini to take over the Sicilian club from Maurizio Zamparini by the end of the month.
A statement on Palermo’s website says Baccaglini and Zamparini met Tuesday and closed the deal following a positive outcome of due diligence.
The club says “therefore the change in ownership, given the banking delays, will occur by June 30.”
Palermo finished next-to-last in Serie A last month and will drop down to Serie B for next season.
Having grown up in the United States, Baccaglini moved to Italy to pursue a basketball career and then became known as an Italian TV personality.
Leeds United’s new manager Thomas Christiansen hopes to take the club to the Premier League in his first season at Elland Road and believes his ideas can help Leeds’ regain top flight status for the first time since 2004.
Leeds, who finished seventh in the second-tier Championship, are one of the fallen giants of the English game, and have won the title three times.
Tottenham Hotspur suffered a setback ahead of their one-season tenure at Wembley after the Premier League said they cannot alter the dimensions of the playing surface, the Times reported on Tuesday.
Spurs will play home matches at the 90,000-capacity national stadium before moving to a new 61,500-seat home stadium, which will be ready for the 2018-19 campaign.
The Times reported last month that Tottenham were hoping to reduce the pitch size at Wembley to suit their high-pressing game but were told in a meeting of 20 Premier League chairmen that such a change would not be permitted.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side will need to adapt to a 105 metres by 69 metres playing area at Wembley, the largest in the English topflight football next season.
Sassuolo have appointed Cristian Bucchi as head coach following the departure of Eusebio di Francesco, the Serie A club said on Tuesday (www.sassuolocalcio.it).
Bucchi, 40, has no previous coaching experience in Serie A and joins Sassuolo having left Italian second-tier club Perugia by mutual agreement after one season in charge.
Di Francesco, who led Sassuolo to promotion to Serie A in the 2012-13 season, left to take over as coach of Serie A rivals AS Roma.
Sassuolo finished 12th in the standings last season.
Hans van Breukelen announced Tuesday he is stepping down as the technical director of the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) after a sometimes rocky 13 months in the job.
He leaves on August 1 just weeks before key matches as the Dutch national team battles for a place in next year’s World Cup finals in Russia.
Van Breukelen admitted however he remained “self-critical” saying: “I have not succeeded in fulfilling mine and our ambitions, and from that I draw my own conclusions.”
The Dutch federation’s commercial director Jean-Paul Decossaux said it was “a pity” that Van Breukelen was going, but the KNVB respected his decision.
FIFA has warned Mexico about the conduct of its fans after discriminatory chants at the Confederations Cup.
The homophobic abuse was heard during Mexico’s opening game against Portugal in Kazan on Sunday despite FIFA warning on the eve of the World Cup warmup tournament that there would be tighter monitoring of offensive incidents in stadiums.
FIFA says its disciplinary committee chairman Anin Yeboah “decided to impose a warning on the Mexican Football Federation for the misconduct of a small group of Mexican fans in relation to insulting and discriminatory chants.”
Mexico has been sanctioned over gay slurs by fans in the current World Cup qualifying campaign.