Axed: Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has left star strikers Peter Odemwingie and Obafemi Martins out of his squad for next year’s Africa Cup in South Africa. West Brom attacker Odemwingie last featured for Nigeria in a Nations Cup qualifier in Rwanda in February, while Martins, now playing for Levante in Spain, failed to impress in a recent friendly in Venezuela.
A-League: Emile Heskey scored his sixth goal of the A-League season as the Newcastle Jets bounced back from a losing run to beat struggling Sydney FC 2-1 yesterday. Heskey scored from close range after lead-up work from James Virgili in the 26th minute for a 2-0 lead before Yairo Yau pulled one back in the 32nd minute. But Sydney’s Alessandro Del Piero barely featured as the side remained anchored at the bottom of the 10-team competition with just three wins and a draw in 12 games.
Ince: Blackpool manager Michael Appleton is not aware of an improved offer from Liverpool for Tom Ince. Appleton confirmed last week his chairman Karl Oyston and the Premier League club had held discussions about Ince, who left Anfield with one senior appearance to his name last summer, but the initial fee put forward fell short of Blackpool’s valuation of the England Under-21 winger. Asked whether Liverpool had upped their bid, Appleton said: “No, not that I’m aware of.”
Emon: Albert Emon has been named the new coach of Ajaccio and will begin in his new role on January 2. Emon, who has previously coached Marseille, Nice, and most recently Cannes, will fill the post left vacant after Alex Dupont was sacked last week.
Sanchez: Valenciennes coach Daniel Sanchez has signed a one-year contract extension to keep him at the Ligue 1 club until 2014. Sanchez, who has previously coached Tours and was assistant coach at St Etienne and Bordeaux, joined Valenciennes last year on an original contract that was due to expire next June.
Meireles: Fenerbahce’s Raul Meireles appeared before the Turkish Football Federation’s appeal commission yesterday in a bid to overturn his 11-match ban for spitting and making a homophobic gesture at a referee. Meireles will have to wait until this week to find out whether his appeal has been upheld, with the commission waiting to review “images of the incident from every angle”.