The host cities for the 2018 World Cup will be announced live on Russian television on Sepember 29, reports said.
Thirteen cities – Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaro-slavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sochi and Yekaterinburg – are competing for the right to stage the matches.
Moscow will have two venues – the 90,000-seat Luzhniki stadium, which will stage the final, and another to be chosen from two 45,000-seat arenas that are being built by the Spartak and Dynamo clubs.
Hamburg’s Fink under pressure
Hamburg’s sporting director Frank Arnesen has piled pressure on Thorsten Fink, revealing the Bundesliga coach will be evaluated in the winter break following three defeats to open the season.
“Until December 16 (when the winter break begins), there are still 14 matches in which to gauge the team and that also goes for Thorsten,” the Danish director said.
Hamburg are celebrating 125 years of existence but have had a disastrous start to the new campaign, having been knocked out of the German Cup by third division Karlsruhe and losing all three of their Bundesliga matches.
Mikel shuts his Twitter account
Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel was forced to close his Twitter account after suffering a barrage of racist abuse prompted by his costly mistake against Juventus.
Mikel removed his profile less than 24 hours after his blunder contributed to Juve’s late equali-ser as Chelsea were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea originally insisted it was coincidental that Mikel had decided to delete the account he only set up earlier this year.
But the Euro champions later admitted they had informed the police after being made aware of the unacceptable nature of the abuse Mikel had endured.
More Swedes stabbed in Naples
Attacks by hardcore fans of Serie A side Napoli left three more Swedes hurt following a Europa League match Thursday in the southern Italian port city.
According to reports, the attacks occurred following Napoli’s 4-0 win over AIK Solna.
Police said after the match the Swedish supporters were stabbed in the buttock and leg and the third victim was admitted to hospital for tests.
On Thursday police launched a hunt for what they called “pseudo fans” of Napoli who stabbed two Swedes and the owner of the pizzeria where they were eating after an ambush late Wednesday.
Hillsborough report ends lie – Barnes
John Barnes (picture) has said the recent report into the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy has ended the “lie” that the Anfield club’s fans caused the stadium disaster that left 96 people dead.
Speaking in Myanmar, where the former Liverpool forward has been training young footballers, Barnes – who was playing in the FA cup semi-final as the horrors unfolded – said the record had finally been set straight.
“I knew that it was a lie when they said the Liverpool fans caused the disaster and they said the Liverpool fans robbed the bodies. I knew that’s not true,” he said, of false reports at the time that fans had stolen from the dead.
“I am happy... the truth has come out.”
Mexico to bid for 2026 World Cup
Mexico will bid to host the 2026 World Cup, the country’s soccer chief Justino Compean said.
Mexico hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cups and a successful bid for the 2026 finals would make the country the first to host the global showpiece event three times.
“Mexico was a great host in ‘70 and ‘86, so we are indeed going to fight (for the right), we want to have a World Cup (again), there will be a strong competition with the US,” Compean said.
Other countries to have held the finals twice are Italy (1934 and 1990), France (1938 and 1998) and Germany (1974 and 2006).
Drogba hopes to stay in China
Didier Drogba has said he hopes to stay with Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua despite questions over his future. The former Chelsea striker joined Shenhua in July for a reported $300,000-plus a week, making him the highest-paid player in China.
Attendances have swelled to around 20,000 people for home games when Drogba plays from 15,000 previously.
But Shenhua chief investor Zhu Jun has reportedly threatened to withhold salaries of foreign players unless he is granted majority control of the club.
Drogba said: “I am happy here, so I have no reason to leave. I want to stay here as long as I can – win trophies with my team and make our fans very happy.
“It’s difficult at the moment but I know that there’s hope and I believe.”