Key events
Tom Garry has news from Liverpool, whose goalkeeper Rafaela Borggräfe is under investigation after teammates and staff reported an allegedly racist comment.
The Football Association has launched a racism investigation after the Liverpool goalkeeper Rafaela Borggräfe allegedly made reference to skin colour in a comment overheard by some staff and teammates.
The alleged incident is understood to have been heard while Liverpool were preparing to take a squad photograph, and the club are believed to have promptly looked into the matter internally.
The player’s representatives were contacted by the Guardian on Wednesday and no response has yet been received. However, Borggräfe is understood to have denied the allegations during the course of the ongoing proceedings.
More here:
Arsenal have announced this morning a significant boardroom reshuffle, with vice-chairman Tim Lewis surprisingly departing. Here’s PA Media:
Arsenal have announced the surprise departure of vice-chairman Tim Lewis following a major reshuffle of the club’s board.
Lewis, 62, has advised Arsenal’s owners Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) since 2007 and was the vice-chair for the past two-and-a-half years. Lewis joined the club’s board in 2020. He played a key role alongside manager Mikel Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta in the club’s £250million summer spending spree and was regarded as a significant figure within the north London club.
Managing director Richard Garlick takes up the role of chief executive officer, while KSE representatives’ Kelly Blaha, Otto Maly, and film producer and director Ben Winston – son of professor Robert Winston – join the club’s board as non-executive directors.
Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke said: “We would like to thank Tim for his continued dedication and commitment to Arsenal in a period of transformational change for the club. He has played a pivotal role and ensured we are in a great position to continue to deliver our strategy in our ambition to win major trophies.
“In keeping with our desire to always move forward, we will strengthen our board with some exciting additions who will bring vast experience to the club across a wide range of professions.
“The group know and love Arsenal, and will bring a different skillset and expertise while injecting fresh thinking and energy to support us all to achieve our ambitions. We are delighted to promote Rich to CEO after an incredibly successful period as managing director of Arsenal. Rich has made an enormous impact on all fronts as we continue to strive to win major trophies, be financially sustainable and put our supporters at the heart of everything.”
While obviously they’re not as good other sports do exist, and if you want to follow the World Athletics Championship we’ve got just the thing for you:
Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler has held his Friday press conference, looking ahead to tomorrow’s home game against Spurs. More news from him in due course but his injury updates included confirmation that Jack Hinshelwood has injured an ankle ligament and will be out “for a long time”, while Maxim De Cuyper is slated for a late fitness test.
Unfortunately we had two injuries in the game against Bournemouth. Jack will be out for a long time. He has a ligament injury in his ankle, it happened in a very unlucky way, but that’s football. For Maxim it’s not so bad, so he might be available. It’s not a big injury so hopefully he will be back soon. Mats Wieffer is back and available.
The Premier League managerial press conferences have already started – more news from them in due course – but meanwhile here’s some reaction from last night’s Champions League games, with Andy Brassell watching Marcus Rashford remind England, and specifically Newcastle, of his ability at St James’ Park:
It was the day that Uefa confirmed, as kick-off approached in Barcelona’s Champions League season, that La Liga’s champions would begin their home campaign in the competition against Paris Saint-Germain next month where they ended the last one, at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. With their supporters getting ready to renew their journey up the slopes of Montjuic that few of them care for, their climb to potential glory mirrors the hopes of one of their new arrivals.
And how he has arrived. Flags do not get planted at the summit much more emphatically than this, and Marcus Rashford could not have picked his moment better to announce himself with Barcelona.
Much more here:
Miguel Dantas has written this morning about José Mourinho’s return to Portugal after more than two decades.
Less than three weeks after being dismissed by Fenerbahce, José Mourinho is back in the dugout. The “Special One” has taken over at Benfica, marking his return to his home country more than two decades after his move from Porto to Chelsea. In an unusual twist he has signed a contract to June 2027 with a break clause next summer related to October’s club presidential election. Will this be a fresh start for Mourinho, or another step down in his career?
Hélder Postiga, a former Tottenham forward and one of Mourinho’s key players at Porto, regards the appointment as a win for an entire nation. Postiga, who scored five goals in Porto’s triumphant 2003-04 Uefa Cup campaign, believes the coach’s return will elevate Portuguese football. “It will be great for the game here,” he says. “Mourinho is more than a man – he’s a global brand.”
Much more here:
Hello world!
As the sun sets on a busy week of European football, with three full nights of Champions League action throwing two different English clubs into continental competition on each of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a hectic weekend dawns.
Tonight Middlesbrough, the current Championship leaders, play fifth-placed West Bromwich Albion, who could overtake them with a healthy win. Tomorrow the Premier League action starts with a lunchtimely Merseyside derby at Anfield and continues with a couple of meaty-looking encounters between sides currently struggling, with bottom club Wolves hosting Leeds, and a Burnley side unlucky to have only three points welcoming a Nottingham Forest team seemingly approaching full wheels-off mode. And while it’s way too early to pay much attention to any of the league tables and the WSL most of all, their season being just two games old, Sunday’s game between Manchester United and Arsenal, two of the teams with 100% records so far and last year’s second- and third-place finishers, is a guaranteed cracker.
So, I hear you ask, is there anything to look out for in the Premier League this weekend?
That, my friends, is a question I can answer.
