Manchester City have put plans to play a charity match in Genoa this week on hold due to the weather in Italy.
Manager Roberto Mancini was due to take a large group of first-team and elite development squad players to the city to play a game and raise money for Genoa flood victims.
The club have announced that freezing temperatures and travel uncertainty have led to a postponement of the trip, which they hope to rearrange.
City were to play a team named ‘Uniti Per Genoa’ made up of players from Mancini’s former club Sampdoria and Genoa.
Beckenbauer puts Dortmund top
Borussia Dortmund and not Bayern Munich are now favourites to win the Bundesliga title, according to Franz Beckenbauer.
Champions Dortmund, managed by Jurgen Klopp, went two points clear at the top of the table last weekend as Bayern were held to a 1-1 draw at Hamburg.
Bayern honorary president Beckenbauer said: “Kloppo, you are the German champions, you are now the league leaders and therefore you are the title favourites.
“I understand that Jurgen Klopp wants to keep the players’ feet on the ground. But they can also see the table.”
Scharner warned
West Brom midfielder Paul Scharner has been warned he could face action if he shows off his Baggies T-shirt again in Sunday’s derby with Wolves at Molineux.
Scharner pulled up his match shirt and displayed the home-made T-shirt towards Wolves winger Stephen Hunt and upset fans during Albion’s 2-1 win in the first clash between the clubs this season.
It led to Wolves boss Mick McCarthy initially hitting out at Scharner. Later he relaxed his stance when it was discovered the T-shirt only displayed a West Brom logo.
But Scharner confirmed: “I already had a written warning from the FA over the shirt incident. It would be very risky to do it again.”
Date confirmed for Catania game
The remainder of the Serie A match between Catania and Roma will now be played to-morrow. The game was sus-pended on January 14 in the 65th minute due to a waterlogged pitch at the Stadio Angelo Mas-simino, with the score at 1-1.
It was initially announced that the final 25 minutes would be played today if Roma qualified for the Coppa Italia semi-finals or February 15 if they did not.
The Giallorossi were knocked out of the cup, but the ‘mini-clash’ with Catania will now be played tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Ibra handed three-match ban
Zlatan Ibrahimovic will miss Milan’s important league match against Juventus on February 25 after being handed a three-match ban yesterday.
The Swedish forward was sanctioned after he was shown the red card for hitting Napoli player Salvatore Aronica during Sunday’s match at the San Siro.
Ibrahimovic will skip Milan’s next three league matches against Udinese, Cesena and the title decider against his former club Juventus.
Milan are expected to appeal the ban as they contend that Ibrahimovic’s gesture didn’t warrant more than a two-match suspension.
Hart plays down captaincy claims
Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart admits he is flattered to be linked with the vacant England captaincy, but believes there are more obvious choices for the role.
For various reasons there are question marks over the first names on the list of potential replacements for John Terry, who was stripped of the role for a second time on Friday. Hart is not thinking too much about it.
“I am flattered to be linked with it but anyone who’s having a consistent run in the England side is being linked with it,” Hart said.
“There are a lot stronger candidates than me. I don’t have a view on who should be captain.
“As long as I’m playing I don’t really care.”
Giresse dismisses revenge notion
Mali coach Alain Giresse rejected the notion that revenge had been his motivation in plotting Gabon’s demise in Sunday’s Africa Cup quarter-final.
The Frenchman managed Gabon at the last Nations Cup in 2010, only to be abruptly replaced afterwards by his former team-mate at Bordeaux, Gernot Rohr.
Giresse, speaking at the post-match press conference after shaking Rohr’s hand, said: “Revenge? I don’t function like that, anyone who says I was motivated by revenge doesn’t know me.
“My only concern was preparing my Mali team, to help them achieve their objectives.”