Football Dispatch

Summer Football
01 August 2007
Just when there looked to be a resolution in sight, the Carlos Tevez saga took another twist, this morning. West Ham have claimed that signatures on the paperwork submitted by the Tevez camp appear suspicious and may be forgeries. The club, which was fined 5M-pounds for fielding both Tevez and Javier Mascherano inelligibly last season, is hoping to summon both Tevez and Kia Joorabchian to the docket for a cross-examination later this month. Joorabchian, the owner of Media Sports International (MSI), the company which controls Tevez' playing rights, is equally hopeful of hearing testimony from Hammers owner Eggart Magnusson and Premier League officials Scott Duxbury and Richard Scudamore. West Ham, having previously submitted a compromise package to all parties seem the side most willing to settle out of court. This may be because the club is afraid that further investigation into their use of Tevez and Mascherano would reveal additional irregularities and result in relegation from the Premier League.

Chelsea appear resigned to losing Arjen Robben to Real Madrid. Jose Mourinho is hoping to net 19M-pounds from the sale of the 23-year-old Dutchman. Robben has been plagued by injury set-backs over the past two seasons after taking Stamford Bridge by storm in 2004-2005. Should the transaction go through as expected, Mourinho will make another bid for Sevilla's Daniel Alves. Capable of playing both the right full-back and midfield positions, the 24-year-old Brazilian has been near the top of Chelsea's wish-list since Christmas. Mourinho's most recent offer was 13M-pounds; although Sevilla are holding-out for around 20M-pounds.

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Ericksson continues to pursue foreign talent in his quest to re-vamp the depleted talent pool at Eastlands. The former England boss is on the cusp of signing Bulgarian international striker Valeri Bojinov for 5.75M-pounds from Fiorentina. After moving to Florence from Lecce in 2005, Bojinov was loaned-out to Juventus in 2006 and scored 5-goals in 18-appearances for the Serie-B winners. Upon the conclusion of the season, he announced that he preferred not to return to Fiorentina. Bojinov has scored twice in 11-caps for his country.

The 1st-leg of the UEFA Champions' League 2nd-qualification round took place yesterday. Rangers defeated Montenegrin side FK Zeta 2-0 at Ibrox through goals from Lee McCulloch and David Weir. Sarajevo also stunned Genk in Belgium with a 2-1 win. Tuesday's other results included Copenhagen 1-0 Beitar Jersusalem, Tampere 1-0 Levski Sofia, Pyunik 0-2 Shakhtar Donetsk, Debrecen 0-1 Elfsberg, Zaglebie 0-1 Steaua Bucharest.