Manchester City will play their home matches for the next 10 years at Etihad Stadium after a naming rights agreement was confirmed on Friday.
Formerly known as the City of Manchester Stadium, the club s home stadium will carry the name of the Abu Dhabi-based company, who are already the club s shirt sponsor.
The 2011 FA Cup winners were taken over by a consortium of Abu Dhabi businessmen in 2008.
We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Etihad Airways through this partnership agreement, City chief executive Garry Cook said.
Despite the mega-rich club spending big in recent years, they racked up a debt of over 123 million pounds last season and the move which has annoyed traditionalists should help City with the financial fair play regulati…
A late collapse by Scotland saw Steve Clarke’s side lose 4-0 to the Netherlands in their friendly encounter in Amsterdam.
The visitors controlled much of the first half and hit the goal frame through Ryan Christie but the Dutch took the lead five minutes from the break with a Tijjani Reijnders thunderbolt.
Scotland continued to create and miss chances in the Johan Cruijff ArenA – as did the Netherlands – before Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland hit the bar in the 62nd minute with only Dutch goalkeeper Mark Flekken to beat.
It was a glorious chance for Scotland and they were made to pay 10 minutes later when Georginio Wijnaldum headed in a second and then goals from substitutes Wout Weghorst and Donyell Malen in the 84th and 86th minutes turned a good perf…
Belgium head into Sunday s Group H clash with Russia knowing a victory will ensure they progress to the last 16 of the FIFA World Cup.
Big things were expected of Marc Wilmots side ahead of the tournament, but they made hard work of getting off to a winning start against Algeria.
Substitutes Marouane Fellaini and Dries Mertens were on target in the last 20 minutes to thwart an Algeria side that looked set to pull off a shock victory after Sofiane Feghouli put them ahead with a first-half penalty.
Belgium had failed to demonstrate the attacking flair that has led to talk of them being dark horses to win the tournament in Brazil.
They dug deep to secure all three points, though, and another victory against Fabio Capello s side who laboured to a 1-1 draw wit…
Portuguese champions Porto face a tough road trip to Russia on Thursday to take on Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League.
Porto began their 2011/12 European campaign with a 2-1 win at home against Ukraine s Shakhtar Donetsk, but will face a much tougher task when they travel from one side of the continent to the other to face Luciano Spalletti s Zenit.
The Russians were shock 2-1 losers against Cypriot s APOEL in their Group G opener on September 13, and need to make the most of their home fixtures if they are to qualify for the knockout stages.
Although the two sides have never met, Porto have never lost on Russian soil and won two matches there on their march to last season s Europa League title, scoring six goals in the process.
Despite losing s…
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has made it clear the return of Mario Gotze from Bayern Munich is by no means a done deal yet.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed at the weekend that the clubs are in talks over the Germany international following months of speculation, but an agreement still seems far away at this stage.
We can imagine Gotze returning to BVB, Watzke told TZ. But it is not a done deal yet and no final decisions have been made yet.
We have not reached an agreement with anyone, not with the club, nor with the player. It has to work out for us financially.
Dortmund fly out to China on Thursday for their pre-season tour and Watzke has suggested negotiations will still be ongoing by then.
Thanks to modern co…
Corentin Tolisso has decided to snub a move to Napoli and will stay at Lyon, who claim the Serie A side were willing to pay up to €37.5 million for the midfielder.
Recent reports suggested the 21-year-old had already agreed terms with Napoli, but Lyon announced on Wednesday that Tolisso will remain at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
Lyon are pleased to announce that Tolisso has decided to stay with Lyon this season despite strong interest from Napoli, a statement on their official website reads.
[President] Jean-Michel Aulas said more than once in recent days that he could not imagine Corentin leaving despite the player s initial desire to join Napoli.
Corentin informed Jean-Michel Aulas on Wednesday of his decision to stay after a long and positive convers…
Philippe Coutinho is one of the players Barcelona will try to move this summer again and try to make some money they could then invest elsewhere. After spending around 130 million euros on the Brazilian in January 2018, they are now desperate to sell him and could do so for a cut-price. But where will they sell him is the real question.
According to Le10Sport, it seems like Arsenal have entered the race to sign former Liverpool star. They are reporting that manager Mikel Arteta is dreaming of bringing Coutinho to the Emirates and that after his loan spell at Bayern Munich, a number of Premier League clubs will want to land him permanently next season.
But how realistic that is? Arsenal are not in a good financial situation, they will be even less so after coronavirus pa…
Zinedine Zidane must find a way to make his Real Madrid players hungry again, says Clarence Seedorf.
Madrid reappointed Zidane as head coach in March after failed experiments with Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari during a desperately disappointing season by their own lofty standards, which has seen them fall way off the pace in LaLiga and crash out of the Champions League to Ajax in the last 16.
The club legend had led Madrid to three straight Champions League trophies as well as winning LaLiga in the 2016-17 campaign before resigning after beating Liverpool in last season s European showpiece.
Since returning to the dugout, Madrid have lost just once in the five matches Zidane has overseen but there remains a lack of fluency about their play, while they are l…
Harry Kane has condemned the vile racist abuse Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho received after the Euro 2020 final.
The three England players missed penalties in a 3-2 shoot-out defeat to Italy following a 1-1 draw at Wembley on Sunday.
Saka s spot-kick, saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma, was decisive, while Rashford and Sancho were introduced in the closing minutes of extra time in order to boost England s shoot-out hopes.
The trio have subsequently been the subject of racist abuse on social media, prompting an angry response from the Football Association and manager Gareth Southgate.
Teenaged team-mate Jude Bellingham said the abuse was hurtful but not surprising , and England captain Kane has now responded.
Three lads who were brillia…
One of the regular features of Liverpool s glorious title-winning 2019/20 Premier League campaign was the resilience they showed on numerous occasions when they came back from behind to win, and their triumph against West Ham United on Saturday was another example of the mentality which manager Jurgen Klopp has instilled in his team.
The West Ham approach
The visitors came to Anfield with an obvious intention to keep things tight at the back and think about protecting their own net first, believing that an opportunity to hit the champions back would come through counterattacks. Moyes arranged his men in an extremely defensive 5-4-1 shape and their numbers in and around their box were extremely difficult to penetrate.
It seemed like a good plan for most of the contest. …