Guardiola would welcome UEFA FFP probe clarity to end rumours

Southampton appoint Hasenhuttl as manager

WATFORD, United Kingdom, Dec 5, (AFP): Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hopes a swift conclusion to UEFA’s investigation over alleged Financial Fair Play (FFP) irregularities committed by the Premier League champions will silence the speculation surrounding the case.

UEFA

president

Aleksander exactly and to finish with these voices,” said Guardiola.

“We will know if we did something irregular and if we didn’t do something irregular, the people is going to finish talking about it.”

It is claimed City bypassed UEFA’s FFP rules, designed to restrict the losses clubs can make and therefore lavish spending on player transfers and wages, by allowing their Abu Dhabi-based sponsors to make cash injections and backdate sponsorship contracts.

A member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, Sheikh Mansour, has owned City since 2008, transforming the club by investing billions of pounds in players and the club’s facilities.

In a repeated statement City said they would not comment on what they described as “out of context materials purportedly hacked or stolen from City Football Group and Manchester City personnel and associated people”.

appointed Austrian as manager on a 2-1/2-year contract after firing Welshman the struggling Premier League club said in a statement on Wednesday. The 51-year-old former

coach will take charge on Thursday, the day after Saints play

in the league

have at Wembley.

Southampton sacked Hughes after a 2-2 draw at home to

last weekend left the south-coast club in the relegation zone with one win from 14 league matches.

Hasenhuttl guided newly-promoted Leipzig to second place in the Bundesliga in the 2016-17 season before leaving last May after a dispute over a new contract.

The former Austria forward will be Saints’ fourth manager in two years with

Guardiola

and also being sacked since

left for Everton in 2016.

“This manager change offers us a fresh start and, very quickly, Ralph emerged as our ideal candidate,” Southampton chairman

said in a statement. “As a coach, he embodies the passion, structure, communication skill set, work ethic and appetite for growth that we strive for in our Southampton Way.”

Ex-Guatemala soccer chief and former FIFA executive committee member 72, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a US court, and will be sentenced by a judge in New York this week, it was revealed Tuesday.

Accused in 2015 of joining a criminal conspiracy to commit a crime, two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money, Salguero pleaded guilty to the four counts and is under house arrest in the United States.

He pleaded guilty on Oct 27, 2016 in a closed-door hearing with Judge

who is in charge of the FIFAGate case in federal court in Brooklyn.

But the transcript of what took place that day was just released Tuesday, and heavily redacted in places to protect the names of certain countries and entities.

Salguero is one of the defendants in FIFAGate, the scandal uncovered by the US government that accused 42 people and sports companies of 92 crimes and accepting more than $200 million in bribes.

At sentencing Thursday, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each, but his cooperation with the prosecution may help his period of incarceration.

As part of his plea agreement with the prosecution, Salguero agreed to return $168,000 received in bribes, according to court documents.