Tottenham have agreed a Stg£11 million deal for Dynamo Kiev striker Sergei Rebrov. The Ukrainian star has finalised the terms of a five-year contract at White Hart Lane after passing a medical, and will return to the Ukraine to await his work permit.
The 25-year-old is one of the hottest properties in Europe, having scored around 100 League goals for Kiev. He is understood to have agreed a £25,000-per-weekcontract.
The FA Premier League has seen attendances rise for the eighth year on the trot. Provisional figures show a total of 11.66 million fans passed through the turnstiles of the top flight this season, an increase of 0.4 per cent. The huge gulf in crowds between the Premier League and First Division is shown in the attendances of Bradford and Watford, whose gates rose by 26 per cent and 56 per cent respectively despite relatively poor campaigns.
Of the established Premier League clubs, Leeds were rewarded for their success with an average increase of 3,400, but Manchester United topped the crowd charts passing the one million mark, with an average of 58,017. Aston Villa's gates went down by over 14 per cent.
Celtic centre half Marc Rieper may announce his retirement in the next few days, as he is running out of options in his bid to recover from a serious toe injury.
Unlucky Everton defender David Weir faces two operations, for a hernia problem and an Achilles tendon tear, in a fortnight after a painful end to his Premiership season. He will not figure in Scotland's summer friendly, away to the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on May 30th.
Former Leeds striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has been put on the transfer market by Atletico Madrid, who have been relegated.
Parma will play Inter Milan on Tuesday in Verona to determine who takes Italy's fourth Champions League place for next season. The two sides finished in joint-fourth place in Serie A.
A gilt sculpture of David Beckham adorning the base of a Buddha statue in a Bangkok temple has left Thai religious authorities doing some soul searching. The foot-high Beckham statue carved by a sculptor and avid Manchester United fan is on the pedestal of the temple's Buddha image, a spot normally reserved for minor deities.
"It is not suitable to create divergent styles of Buddha images because it is the most sacred thing for Thais and it is the national religion," the deputy director general of the religious affairs department, Suthipong Tantayapisarnsuth said. However he conceded "there are no exact rules governing the pedestal of a Buddha . . . as long as it does not include women."
The English Premiership is a national obsession in Thailand.
Leeds and Ipswich were last night charged with misconduct by the English FA following an investigation into black market tickets for England matches at Wembley. Contrary to an agreement with the clubs, tickets were sold at above face value as part of unauthorised corporate hospitality packages.
"We know the identity of the person concerned and appropriate action has been taken," said Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale.
