Vieira off to winning start as NYC douse Fire
CHICAGO: Patrick Vieira’s managerial reign got off to a winning start on Sunday as New York City FC opened their Major League Soccer season with a 4-3 victory against Chicago Fire.
World Cup-winning former France international Vieira is hoping to inspire a transformation in New York’s fortunes after a disappointing inaugural season that saw them fail to reach the playoffs.
Vieira will be relieved to have secured the first three points of his tenure after a late Chicago fightback, which set up a tense finale after David Accam’s 72nd-minute penalty cut City’s lead to 4-3. TEIXEIRA DOUBLE LIFTS BIG SPENDERS TO A FLYER SHANGHAI: Asia’s record signing Alex Teixeira struck twice on his debut as big-spending Jiangsu Suning got their Chinese Super League (CSL) campaign off to a flying start with a 3-0 victory over Shandong Luneng.
The first round of this year’s CSL attracted global attention after a huge transfer spree by cashed-up Chinese clubs, with 50m euro (₹368 crore) capture Teixeira under the microscope.
But the striker, who was lured from Shakhtar Donetsk from under the noses of Liverpool, lived up to the hype by firing home in the 66th and 85th minutes.
That was after fellow Brazilian Ramires, who cost 28m euros (₹187 crore) from Chelsea in January, had opened the scoring just three minutes into the new season watched by 48,795 fans at Nanjing Olympic Stadium. WC SCANDAL INQUIRY TO COST 3.5M EUROS
BERLIN: The German FA’S (DFB) inquiry into the 2006 World Cup scandal is set to cost around 3.5m euros (₹25.6 crore), interim pres ident Rainer Koch has revealed
Last October, German mag azine Spiegel opened a can of worms by claiming the DFB had used a slush fund of 6.7m euros (₹49.4 crore) in 2000 to buy votes from members of FIFA’S execu tive committee in order to win the right to host the tournament
In the wake of the scandal the DFB tasked business law specialists Freshfields with auditing the bid. The DFB has yet to receive the final bill from Freshfields, but Koch expects it to be 3.5 million euros.