Sporting briefs
Calderwood: Scottish Premier League strugglers Hibernian sacked manager Colin Calderwood yesterday after the team’s miserable start to the season. Calderwood has only been in charge at Easter Road for 12 months but a poor run of results, culminating in...
Calderwood: Scottish Premier League strugglers Hibernian sacked manager Colin Calderwood yesterday after the team’s miserable start to the season. Calderwood has only been in charge at Easter Road for 12 months but a poor run of results, culminating in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat against Dunfermline, and pressure from angry fans forced the board to act.
Subotic: Serbia centre-back Neven Subotic is expected to miss the rest of the year after the Borussia Dortmund defender suffered a fractured cheek-bone in the 5-1 win over Wolfsburg on Saturday. The 22-year-old had to be replaced at half-time after receiving an elbow in his face from Wolfsburg’s Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
McCarthy: Benni McCarthy, South Africa’s all-time leading scorer, says he is done playing for the national side. “You don’t want to be having old throngs hanging around the national team,” said the 33-year-old striker, who has 31 goals in 79 matches for South Africa. McCarthy, who had stints with FC Porto, Blackburn and West Ham, has struggled with injuries recently. He is currently playing for Orlando Pirates.
Solidarity: Atalanta’s ultra fans collected funds for flood victims ahead of the team’s match against Cagliari yesterday. The Atalanta ultra fans, the most vocal and notorious of the club’s supporters, have joined forces with their Genoa and Sampdoria counterparts to raise money for the victims. “The North End cannot remain un-touched by the calamity that has hit Genoa,” said a leaflet.
Kharja: Morocco midfielder Houssine Kharja was left out of the Fiorentina squad for the match with Chievo yesterday as punishment for travelling to Milan several times a week without permission. Kharja had already been fined last week for taking these unauthorised trips but having repeated the offence, coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has stepped up the punishment.
Cech: The Czech Republic could suffer a potential blow ahead of crucial Euro 2012 play-offs against Montenegro after goalkeeper Petr Cech hinted he could be sidelined for both matches. Chelsea keeper Cech suffered a broken nose in the 1-0 win away to Blackburn on Saturday and later announced a flying ban, imposed by doctors, means he will be unable to join up with his national squad as scheduled today.