Yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United have agreed a deal with Mainz for the German side's Japanese striker Yoshinori Muto. Muto scored eight goals for the Bundesliga club last season as they avoided relegation by five points. He was in Japan's World Cup squad for Russia and made one appearance - the Group H defeat by Poland. The fee is reported to be nine-and-a-half million notes and Muto would boost the options for a Magpies team that scored thirty nine league goals last season, the second fewest of the top fourteen. If Muto signs it would bring the number of 2018 summer transfer deals completed by Newcastle to five. Switzerland defender Fabian Schar arrived from Deportivo La Coruna on Thursday, while The Magpies have also signed goalkeeper Martin Dubravka on a permanent contract following a six-month loan spell and added former Swansea midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng on a free transfer. They also signed Moscow Chelski FC midfielder Kenedy on a season-long loan deal after the Brazilian had a successful six-month spell during the last campaign.
A total of forty four-and-a-half million punters tuned in to watch the BBC's television coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. There was a record 66.8 million match requests, including live and on-demand, on the BBC Sport website and on iPlayer. England's quarter-final win over Sweden saw the highest peak TV share of the tournament at eighty nine per cent, which was also the BBC's highest online-viewed live programme ever with 3.8 million. The France verses Croatia final had a peak BBC1 audience of 10.4 million. Meanwhile, the BBC Sport website brought in a record 49.2 million unique UK browsers for the tournament, an increase of 16.9 million from the 2014 competition. There were four hundred and fifty thousand unique UK browsers to the online player rater, which generated 11.9 million ratings and more than two million downloaded and three hundred thousand streamed the World Cup Daily podcast in June. Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: 'We have just witnessed one of the most memorable World Cup tournaments ever which has captivated football fans across the United Kingdom. The interest in the tournament and the achievement of England winning through to the semi-finals has been proven in the record-breaking figures for TV and online. It shows the impact that top-quality sport can have when made freely available to everyone.'
British World Cup viewers were 'exposed to almost ninety minutes of betting adverts' during the tournament 'prompting claims that children are being bombarded with messages encouraging them to gamble,' according to some shit-stirring waste-of-oxygen in the Gruniad Morning Star. 'From the beginning of the tournament to England's semi-final clash with Croatia, ITV carried more than eight-and-a-half hours of advertisements, of which just under an hour-and-a-half were advertising betting,' the Gruniad whinged. That, they claimed 'is equivalent to seventeen per cent of World Cup ad breaks, or roughly one minute in every six, with the one hundred and seventy two betting spots combined lasting nearly the length of a football match.' Bookmakers and online casino companies 'enjoyed one-and-a-half times as much screen time as alcohol firms and almost four times that of fast food outlets.' A government review of gambling regulation published earlier this year 'shied away' from suggesting curbs on gambling adverts, citing insufficient evidence that adverts for betting were causing harm to children and vulnerable people sneered the Gruniad. But, Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson - power to the people! - and the charity GambleAware (no, me neither claimed that this was 'partly due to a lack of funding for research into gambling adverts' since they were deregulated in 2007. 'One of the only downsides to this brilliant World Cup has been the bombardment of gambling advertising on TV and social media that thousands of children will have been exposed to,' said Watson. 'With an estimated twenty five thousand children under sixteen addicted to gambling, there is nowhere near enough work being done to study the effects of this advertising. Instead of confronting this issue in the most recent gambling review, the government has turned a blind eye. In doing so they've let our children down.' And, they've let themselves down but, most importantly, they've let Gareth Southgate down. Shame on them, the bastards. Watson added that Labour would impose a mandatory levy on the industry to fund increased research, education and treatment of gambling addiction and the effects of advertising. GambleAware, funded via a voluntary levy on gambling firms of 0.1 per cent of revenue, has backed a mandatory tax because it does not receive enough money to fund research and treatment for problem gamblers, estimated to number more than four hundred thousand in the UK. It has only recently commissioned 'the first major piece of research, conducted by the University of Stirling and Ipsos Mori,' into the effects of gambling adverts being deregulated more than ten years ago. The studies are not due to be complete until next year. The GambleAware chief executive, Marc Etches, said: 'In the absence of evidence, the concern is that this is an adult activity and young people are growing up with it being normalised. They get exposed to it on television around sports, advertising online and gambling activities within [computer] games. It seems to have gone too far. And for young people growing up there just seems to be a stronger and stronger affiliation between the two [gambling and sport] and I'm wary of that.' Fiona Dobbie, who is leading the University of Stirling's research into gambling advertising, claimed that the study 'would analyse the response of children' and other vulnerable groups to marketing. 'This is very much a starting point and we hope it will make a positive contribution to future legislation and policy to protect children from gambling-related harm,' she said. 'If we'd had something starting then [2007], we'd have much robust data but we're now ten years down the line.' According to ITV, 'nearly thirty million people' watched at least a part of England's semi-final clash with Croatia. This increased the cost of gambling advertising on the channel because it allowed companies to reach so many people. Alleged (though suspiciously anonymous) advertising industry 'sources' allegedly said that a thirty-second spot during the semi-final of the World Cup could cost as much as three hundred and fifty thousand smackers but that bookmakers and online casinos were 'paying a premium to secure blanket coverage.' The Gruniad Morning Star 'analysed more than thirteen hundred adverts that were shown around the first thirty games shown by ITV in the competition.' Not that anyone actually asked them to but, obviously, they didn't have any real news to report this week. Of those, one hundred and seventy two were betting adverts or one-in-eight commercials. Excluding the sponsored adverts shown at the beginning and end of each break, betting accounted for one-in-six adverts shown during the broadcaster's World Cup coverage. The Advertising Standards Authority said that it had received one hundred and fifteen whinges about World Cup gambling adverts - from people with nothing better to do with their time, it would seem - mostly about their sheer volume, compared with just twenty seven in the previous month. The regulator is also 'examining several adverts that offer improved odds for a short period,' to see if they contravene new guidance in the advertising code of practice that bars companies from making urgent calls to action, the Gruniad claims. In the UK, gambling companies are only permitted to advertise before the 9pm watershed if they do so during live sporting events. The stipulation is in stark contrast to the law in Australia, where gambling adverts attached to live sports were banned earlier this year.
The celebrations in Paris following France's victory in the World Cup turned extremely violent when dozens of vandals clashed with police and destroyed local shop fronts on the Champs Elysees. With kids getting sparked and all sorts.
Four members of the Russian 'punk activist group' Pussy Riot have been very jailed for fifteen days for disrupting the World Cup final by running onto the pitch. They were accused of 'violating the rules for spectators at sporting events' and 'wearing police uniforms illegally.' They were also banned from attending any sports events for three years and from looking at The Butcher Of Grozny 'in a funny way.' Probably. Pussy Riot said that it was a protest 'against human rights abuses in Russia.' Stewards hauled the four off the pitch and, one imagines, gave them a right kicking round the back of the stadium. Pussy Riot has staged high-profile protests against Vladimir Putin before. Three members were jailed in 2012 for an anti-Putin punk song performed in a Moscow cathedral. The group has tweeted that the four arrested on Sunday spent the whole night at a police station 'in great discomfort.' Three women and a man ran onto the pitch, though one was tackled on the sidelines. They wore police-style uniforms: white shirts, black trousers and epaulettes. One woman managed to do a high-five salute with French star Kylian Mbappé before being led off the pitch. But the male intruder was grabbed angrily by Croatia defender Dejan Lovren. After the incident Lovren told reporters: 'I just lost my head and I grabbed the guy and I wished I could throw him away from the stadium.' The man was identified as Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She was among three Pussy Riot members jailed in 2012. The three women World Cup intruders were named as Nika Nikulshina, Olga Kurachyova and Olga Pakhtusova. A statement from Pussy Riot said that the aims of their protest included making the Russian authorities free all political prisoners, stop illegal arrests at public rallies, allow political competition in the country and stop fabricating criminal cases and jailing people on remand 'for no reason.' The statement quoted a Russian poet, Dmitry Prigov, who had contrasted the 'heavenly policeman who speaks to God on his walkie-talkie' with 'the Earthly one who fabricates criminal cases.' The Russian anti-Putin activist and blogger Alexei Navalny has tweeted a video clip showing two of the pitch invaders being interrogated. An angry voice is heard shouting at Verzilov and one of the women - looking dishevelled in their mock police uniforms. 'Sometimes I regret that it's not 1937' the person off-camera says, alluding to the communist-era terror campaign instigated by Soviet dictator and disgraceful mass murderer Joseph Stalin. The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Russia for its handling of the Pussy Riot women, amongst other high-profile cases.
A London Underground station has been temporarily named after England's football manager. Southgate Tube station was rebranded Gareth Southgate station from Monday morning for forty eight hours, after the squad finished fourth in the World Cup. It was England's best result since 1990 when they also lost in the semi-final. 'We are delighted to be able to show our appreciation to Gareth and the team by renaming the station in his honour,' Transport for London said. The Piccadilly Line station, in Enfield, displayed the manager's name on its signs until the end of Tuesday. One local resident said the temporary signage was a 'fantastic' way to say thank you to the England manager. Speaking at the station, she said: 'He gets on with the job and he achieved those amazing results and lifted the whole nation's spirits. And this is a tribute to him in the very same manner - quiet, unassuming.'
Yer actual Keith Telly Topping's beloved (though unsellable) Magpies' boss, Rafael Benitez, was approached by the Spanish Football Federation about taking temporary charge of Spain at the World Cup according to the BBC Sport website. The RFEF reportedly wanted the fifty eight-year-old after Julen Lopetegui was sacked two days before Spain's opening match.Fernando Hierro took charge on an interim basis as they went on to lose on penalties to Russia in the last-sixteen. Ex-Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has now been appointed on a two-year contract. Speaking to the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Benitez said: 'There was maybe a chance, but still I am here and I am happy to be here. There was a chance. There were rumours about that.' Benitez has said that Newcastle may have to sell before they can buy players in the transfer window. 'Unfortunately it's what we have to do,' said Benitez, 'We have to wheel and deal, that is the way for us. We have to be realistic with our budget, and then maybe sell some players and buy some players.'
Eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt is in talks for a trial to play football in Australia, a club says. The Jamaican former sprinter is 'negotiating a six-week stint' with the Central Coast Mariners, a team in the country's A-League competition. Mariners chief executive Shaun Mielekamp said that the club had spent four months pursuing Bolt and a season-long deal could follow. Football agent Tony Rallis said a deal had been agreed 'in principle.' Rallis, who has been involved in the deal, told local Sky Sports Radio that negotiations continued over Bolt's pay. 'The owner of Central Coast Mariners has put his hand deep in his pocket and guaranteed seventy per cent of the salary,' Rallis said. News Corp Australia reported that 'a multi-million dollar deal' had been proposed. Bolt has previously trained with clubs in Germany, Norway and South Africa. The one and two hundred metres world record holder, who retired from athletics last year, has previously spoken about his interest in becoming a professional footballer. Bolt is a huge fan of The Scum and one of its former assistant managers, Mike Phelan, is now at the Mariners. A Football Federal Australia spokesman told the BBC that it 'would not assist in funding Bolt's trial.' Mielekamp said the club was 'optimistic' that the trial could be extended. 'If all goes well, who knows? He may be lighting up the A-League this season,' he told the local Seven Network on Tuesday. Mielekamp said that the club had received positive reports about Bolt's performance when he trained with Borussia Dortmund and Norwegian side Stromsgodset. 'The most important thing is we wait to find out and see how good a footballer he is first,' Mielekamp said. 'Time will tell at what level he is at and if it fits the A-League.'
It was the scoreline that the late Eric Morecambe used to joke about but had never come true - until now. East Fife four, Forfar five was the much-loved comedian's idea of the ultimate tongue-twister for anyone trying to read out the classified football results. On Sunday, that result finally happened for the first time in the fixture's history. Albeit, only in a roundabout way. The Scottish League Cup Group B tie between the sides went to penalties after a one-all draw. And the score in the shootout was, indeed, East Fife four, Forfar five. Had he lived to see that, it would surely have raised a chuckle from Eric, who came up with the score as a jokey greeting whenever he met his friend James Alexander Gordon, the popular announcer who read the classified results on the BBC for forty years. 'Eric never called me James,' Gordon, who died in 2014, once recalled. 'Whenever I saw him over a twenty-year period, he would say "East Fife four, Forfar five." I've got a tape of that.' Before Sunday, there had been two occasions when the scoreline had almost occurred. In January 1964, it happened with the wrong team at home - finishing Forfar five, East Fife four. And in October 2011, a meeting between the sides ended East Fife four, Forfar three. Anton Dowds claimed the opener on Sunday for East Fife, who had Chris Kane sent off before John Baird equalised. Drawn group games go to penalties under the League Cup format. With the shootout score at four-four, Forfar keeper Marc McCallum saved Daryl Meggatt's kick before Thomas Reilly converted to seal a bonus point for the visitors - and make a little piece of sporting history.
Germany's football association has 'emphatically rejected' allegations of racism from The Arse's Mesut Özil, but says that it 'could have done more' to protect him from abuse. Özil said this week that he no longer wants to play for Germany, citing 'racism and disrespect' within German football. The midfielder says that he received hate mail and threats and was blamed for Germany's disappointing World Cup. The DFB said that it 'regrets the departure of Mesut Özil from the national team.' It added in a statement: 'We emphatically reject the DFB being linked to racism. The DFB has been very involved in integration work in Germany for many years.' Özil was criticised by the DFB and in the German media after being photographed with controversial Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an event in London in May. He received more criticism after Germany were knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage. The DFB conceded that it had not handled the matter well, adding: 'It is regrettable that Mesut Özil felt that he had not been sufficiently protected as a target of racist slogans.' It stressed its commitment to equality, saying: 'The DFB stands for diversity, from the representatives at the top to the boundless, day-to-day dedication of people at the base.' Özil, a third-generation Turkish-German, was born in Gelsenkirchen and was a key member of his country's 2014 World Cup-winning side. A month before Germany defended their title, Özil met Erdogan, along with fellow Germany international Ilkay Gündoğan, a Sheikh Yer Man City player who is also of Turkish descent. Özil says he and Gündoğan 'talked about football' with the president. Afterwards, photographs were released by Turkey's governing AK Party in the build-up to elections in the country, which Erdogan won. Many German politicians questioned Özil and Gündoğan's loyalty to 'German democratic values.' Germany has previously criticised the Turkish leader's crackdown on political dissent following a failed coup. The players met the German FA president to explain the image, though Özil had not issued a public statement on the matter until Sunday. He said Erdogan had also met the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May whilst in England and said he would have been 'disrespecting his ancestors' roots' had he not posed for photographs with the Turkish president. 'It wasn't about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family's country,' he added. Özil has ninety two caps and has been voted the national team's player of the year by fans five times since 2011. He said his recent treatment made him 'no longer want to wear the German national team shirt. I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose,' he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel 'respects' Özil's decision as he 'has done much for the national side,' her spokesperson said on Monday. Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said that the 'racist treatment' Özil has faced in Germany since his country's World Cup exit was 'disgraceful.' Germany is home to about three million people of Turkish descent - a point regularly raised in political debate in the country, where immigration and the rise of far-right parties are key issues for many. In his statement, Özil questions why other dual-heritage team-mates have not been subjected to the same treatment. 'Is it because it is Turkey? Is it because I'm a Muslim? I think here lays an important issue,' he said. German newspapers have criticised Ozil's decision to quit the national team. The popular tabloid Bild said despite Özil's appeals for respect for the highest office of his family's country, he 'ignores that Erdogan stands against the values of his German and Turkish homelands.'It noted that the footballer failed to mention in his 'yammer Facebook post' that Erdogan is 'transforming the freedom-loving, religiously moderate Turkey into an Islamist dictatorship' and 'has almost extinguished free media and freedom of expression.' Frankfurter Allgemeine argued Özil's resignation has left behind 'a pile of shards,' adding his 'sweeping blow' will immerse the German FA in crisis. 'In many ways, Özil has overshot the target,' the daily said, describing Özil's attacks on the media as 'absurd and outrageous.' Die Welt commented that the commitment in wearing a German football shirt means 'more than a good game. National players are role models, especially for young people with migration background,' it said. 'Germany has to formulate its expectations clearly, and every athlete wandering between cultures has to decide whether he can or wants to do that. Those who accept the German passport and put on the national jersey must know what that means for them. The Özil case made that clear,' the paper added.
Leyton Orient are hoping fans with male dogs can help their bid to remove some unwanted 'foxes in the box.' Foxes have been regularly spotted on National League Orient's Brisbane Road pitch in recent weeks. Such is the problem, the club has issued an appeal to any fans who can walk their dog around the ground during mornings and late afternoons. 'It is thought a dog's presence will help prevent further pitch invasions,' Orient said in a short statement. Interested candidates should apply to the club's marketing department - and very advanced dogs can put their names forward themselves.
