Football Dispatch

Summer Football
15 August 2007
It was only a matter of time before the season's first incident of rioting and hooliganism. Predictably, the culprits were the unruly and notoriously facist supporters of Lazio. Five traveling fans were injured and one was hospitalized with severe stab wounds after fights broke out on the grounds of Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Racist chants and songs had penetrated the night throughout the 1-1 draw between Lazio and Dinamo Bucharest in the 1st-leg of a Champions' League qualification match in the Italian capital.

Similarly, CSKA Sofia have been penalized for racist crowd behavior. The club has been fined over $26,000 and its supporters will not be allowed inside its grounds for the next two home matches. In addition to the disgraceful displays in the stands, the home fans peppered the field with various missiles and projectiles. The incident interrupted a match between CSKA and Litex Lovech on Saturday.

Mark Hughes has condemned Arsenal for attempting to lure Morten Gamst-Pedersen to north London. The Blackburn Rovers manager spurned Gunners boss Arsene Wenger's offer of 8M-pounds for the Norwegian international. Gamst-Pedersen scored 8-goals last season and is one of Blackburn's best attacking weapons.

Daniel Alves looks set to complete a move to Chelsea. The Brazilian wing-back was left out of Sevilla manager Juande Ramos' squad for Sunday's Supercup match with Real Madrid as talks escalated with the Premiership giants. Peter Kenyon arrived in Seville this week to conduct the negotiations in person. Alves was also absent from Sevilla's Champions' League qualifier against AEK Athens this evening. The UEFA Cup holders are hoping to cash-in on the 24-year-old. They brought Alves from Bahia for just 700,000-pounds in 2003 and are now expecting to gain 24.5M-pounds from his sale.

Newcastle appear poised for some more wheeling and dealing. Toon boss Sam Allardyce is making overtures to out-of-favour Barcelona right-back Juliano Belletti regarding a switch to St. James' Park. Belletti, a World Cup winner last summer, has fallen behind fellow Italian Gianluca Zambrotta on Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard's depth chart. Allardyce believes he could attain the 31-year-old for as little as 3M-pounds.

Meanwhile, it appears as though West Ham have resurrected their interest in Kieron Dyer. Hammers and Magpies had agreed a 5M-pound fee for the 28-year-old midfielder last week before Newcastle suddenly increased the price to 8M-pounds. The two clubs won't quite meet in the middle, however. Allardyce is anxious to sell the former England international and would accept 6M-pounds in compensation.

Martin Jol has been tracking Curtis Davies for well over a year-and-a-half. With West Bromwich Albion unwilling to part cheaply with the defender, however, the Tottenham Hotspur manager bought Frenchman Younes Kaboul from Auxerre instead. Kaboul, injured in yesterday's 3-1 loss to Everton, is now faced with an extended absence; and Jol has looked at Davies to fill his void in defense once again. This time around, the Dutchman looks ready to pay upwards of 8M-pounds for the 22-year-old.

After two failed transfer attempts, Mido finally is on the cusp of being unveiled at a new club. The 24-year-old Egyptian international underwent a physical examination at Middlesbrough, this afternoon, and is set to be unveiled by the end of the week. A 6.8M-pound deal has already been agreed with Spurs.

England manager Steve McClaren has confirmed that David Beckham will be included in the squad for next week's friendly contest with Germany at Wembley. Beckham, still nursing an ankle injury suffered in England's 3-0 win in Estonia in June, has appeared sparingly since arriving at Los Angeles Galaxy last month. Still, the under-fire McClaren has no plans to break a winning formula which brought positive results in the spring.