A roundup of today's other soccer news in brief:
Moyes vows to battle on
DAVID MOYES has reiterated he has no plans to quit as Everton manager as the Scot bids to secure a place in the last 32 of the Europa league with victory over AEK Athens. Everton face their Greek opponents at the Olympic Stadium today (6.0pm, ESPN, 3e) in their penultimate Group One encounter knowing a win would see them qualify should BATE Borisov fail to beat leaders Benfica.
“I’ve said all along that this is a great job, I really enjoy it and I intend to see it through until the very end,” Moyes said.
Moyes insists his players can turn their season round, but is not expecting a repeat of his team’s 4-0 win over AEK on match-day One.
Moyes has been hit with further injuries with defender Joseph Yobo failing to make the trip due to a hamstring injury. Midfielder Jack Rodwell travelled but is a slight doubt with groin trouble while Lucas Neill and John Heitinga are both ineligible.
Cagliari fined over fans' chants
CAGLIARI HAVE been fined €10,000 after their fans racially abused Juventus midfielder Mohamed Sissoko in Sunday’s 2-0 win, the Italian league said yesterday. The fine was limited because other supporters and the Sardinian club distanced themselves from the chants.
Juve were fined €20,000 last week after their fans sang a non-racist but offensive song about Inter Milan’s black striker Mario Balotelli.
Mowbray plays down Celtic hopes
CELTIC MANAGER Tony Mowbray admits qualification for the knockout stages of the Europa League would now be an unexpected bonus. The Hoops go into the penultimate game against Group C leaders Hapoel Tel Aviv at Parkhead tonight (8.05pm, Setanta) bottom of the pool on two points, five behind second-placed Hamburg.
Mowbray’s men need to beat Hapoel and win at Rapid Vienna later in the month, while hoping the Bundesliga side lose both their remaining games.
Asked if qualification would now be an unexpected bonus, Mowbray replied: “That’s a fair comment. The focus is on winning the last two games and, for the bigger picture, just to keep winning football matches.
Bordeaux want to keep Chamakh
BORDEAUX PRESIDENT Jean-Louis Triaud has rubbished reports Marouane Chamakh is set for a January move to Arsenal as a replacement for the injured Robin van Persie.
The Gunners are likely to dip into the winter transfer market following the news that van Persie faces up to five months on the sidelines after rupturing ankle ligaments during the Netherlands’ friendly against Italy.
Chamakh was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal before the start of the season and Arsene Wenger angered the Ligue 1 champions in September by hinting he would make a renewed effort to bring the Morocco striker to England in January. Bordeaux face losing the 25-year-old for nothing in the summer when his contract expires but Triaud insists they will fend off any fresh offers.
Barry, Caulfield not keen on Cork
FORMER CORK City manager Dave Barry and another of the club’s most celebrated former players, John Caulfield, have said they are not interested in succeeding Paul Doolin as manager of the club.
Doolin left City on Monday night – he has been linked with the vacancy at Dundalk – and a string of other former players have been mentioned in connection with the Cork job including Galway United boss Ian Foster and recently departed Dundalk manager Sean Connor.
It was reported locally yesterday that Gareth Farrelly had been placed on a shortlist of prospective candidates by club owner Tom Coughlan. The appointment of the former international midfielder would be about the most astonishing in recent history were it to come to pass as the former Bohemians player/manager recently settled an unfair dismissals case against City and has previously been scathing in his assessments of the state of the club game here.
England likely to be one of eight seeds for finals
ENGLAND SHOULD be confirmed today as one of the eight seeds ahead of Friday’s draw for next summer’s World Cup but France have an agonising wait to see if they will also be among the top teams for the finals.
Fifa’s World Cup organising committee will decide on the seeds and the format of the draw at a meeting in Cape Town today and whichever formula is used England should be guaranteed a spot as one of the top eight.
Using Fifa’s formula for the 2006 World Cup, current world rankings and performances in the previous two finals would see Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, France and Argentina seeded in that order along with hosts South Africa.
If, however, Fifa’s world rankings alone are used then France would miss out on being seeded with the Netherlands taking their place.
Rankings alone have not been used in the past but Fifa relaunched the system with much fanfare a couple of years ago, boasting the new-look rankings were much more indicative of a country’s current position in world football.
Fifa also announced last week that if rankings were to be used in any way to determine seeding then the October standings would be used. Portugal, England’s nemesis at the last two major tournaments, are almost certainly unseeded so loom as possible group opponents.
