Referee Michael Oliver is set to escape censure for failing to send off Yaya Toure at the end of Manchester City’s penalty shoot-out win over Liverpool in Sunday’s League Cup final.
Had Oliver applied the letter of the law, he ought to have issued Toure a second yellow card for removing his shirt as he wheeled away in triumph after stroking the winner past Simon Mignolet.
However, reports said the FA is satisfied that Oliver took the common-sense approach given the nature of the incident and the fact the game had finished.
Skripnik backing
Werder Bremen forward Claudio Pizarro has backed under-fire coach Viktor Skripnik to lead the club to safety this season.
Bremen travel to Bayer Lever-kusen tonight with just three points separating them from an automatic relegation berth.
Pizarro remains convinced that Skripnik is the right man to guide the club away from danger.
“We are all right behind the coach,” Pizarro said.
“We’re trying all we can to ensure he can keep working in peace and quiet.”
Were the season to end now, Bremen would face a play-off with the side that finishes third in the 2. Bundesliga.
Car crash injury sidelines Niang
Milan striker M’Baye Niang risks missing a good chunk of the Serie A run-in after suffering injuries in a car crash.
The 21-year-old hurt his left ankle and shoulder in an incident that followed Milan’s 1-0 victory over Torino on Saturday.
A statement said the club would assess the true extent of the damage over the next few days, with reports suggesting Niang could miss two months.
The Frenchman lost control of his Audi in the early hours of Sunday morning, as a result of heavy rain in Milan.
In February 2014, during a loan spell with Montpellier, Niang wrote off a Ferrari.
Schelotto favourite for Boca Juniors post
Argentine champs Boca Juniors have sacked coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena after their dismal start to the campaign continued with Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Racing Club.
The decision comes at a critical juncture for Boca, who meet Racing again in their Copa Libertadores tomorrow before the trip to rivals River Plate next Sunday.
The front-runner to take over as Boca coach is Guillermo Barros Schelotto, La Nacion said.
The former Boca striker left Palermo last week because UEFA turned down his coaching licence application.
Boca, captained by Carlos Tevez, have earned seven points from their opening five games in the first division championship including a 1-0 defeat at home to promoted Atletico Tucuman.
Everton midfielder Besic signs new deal
Everton midfielder Muhamed Besic has signed a new five-and-a-half-year contract with the club.
The Bosnia international, who joined from Ferencvaros for £4.8m in the summer of 2014, has been rewarded for some impressive displays this season.
Besic had already triggered a clause in his existing contract this season which entitled him to a 12-month extension by reaching 25 Premier League appearances for the club but, it seems, Everton manager Roberto Martinez was keen to tie the player down to a much longer term.
Coach banned for betting on matches
Romania’s football federation has banned Marius Sumudica, coach of league leaders FC Astra, for six months for placing bets on several domestic and international matches.
Sumudica placed bets bet-ween €500 and €900 on several matches in the Romanian championship, the UEFA Champions League, Europa League as well as Romania’s junior teams’ matches.
Astra publicly backed their coach, who has helped the team top the standings with 51 points from 26 matches, three points ahead of Dinamo Bucharest.
“It’s unfair punishment,” senior official Petre Buduru said.
“We cannot blame him, we will do our best to defend him.”
Oxlade-Chamberlain out for two months
Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will miss up to eight weeks because of a knee injury but should be fit for Euro 2016 after being told he does not require surgery, manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday.
The England international suffered the unspecified injury after colliding with Barcelona’s Javier Mascherano during last week’s 2-0 home defeat in the UEFA Champions League.
“He will be out for six to eight weeks but he won’t need surgery,” Wenger told reporters.
“We feared he would when we saw the MRI scan but in the end it is positive news.”
A mid-April return would give Oxlade-Chamberlain time to prove his fitness ahead of the Euros where England have been drawn in Group B alongside Russia, Wales and Slovakia.