WHILE England were beating Australia 1-0 in a lack-lustre friendly at Wembley, the first teams were qualifying for Euro 2024. France, thanks to two goals from Kylian Mbappé, went through with a 2-1 win against the Netherlands. Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice, beat Slovakia 3-2 to book their place for Germany. Romelu Lukaku was on the scoresheet as Belgium won 3-2 in Austria to qualify. Scotland remain on the brink of qualifying despite losing 2-0 in Seville against Spain. They need one point from two games to get through – they play Georgia and Norway in November.
Rangers have appointed former Monaco coach Philippe Clement as their new manager. The 49 year-old succeeds Michael Beale, who left the club at the start of October. Clement commented: “I am honoured to have been appointed as the new manager of Rangers and I’d like to thank the board for giving me this opportunity. I am hugely excited by this chance to achieve success at one of Europe’s most iconic clubs across four competitions in what remains of this season and beyond.” Rangers chose their 19th manager through a carefully planned process that included a selection team that involved Graeme Souness, the club’s former manager.
The Manchester United debacle shows no sign ot reaching a conclusion. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani has withdrawn from the process to buy the club as he considers the Glazers’ valuation unrealistic. The Sheikh has tabled a bid in excess of £ 5 billion. United’s fans will be very disappointed, as they long for the end of the Glazers’ regime which has been characterised by a high level of indebtedness, running to almost £ 1 billion. United are valued at around £ 2.6 billion and Sheikh Jassim’s bid includes a guarantee to clear the debt. The Glazers’ valuation of the club has been described as “fanciful and outlandish”. Unless something changes, the only bid remaining will be Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s offer for a 25% stake, which means the Glazers’ will still have a sizeable percentage of the club in their hands.
The “will-they, won’t they” tale of the San Siro goes on. Inter Milan’s CEO Alessandro Antonello says his club will go with the fastest project, but bureaucracy may get in the way of staying at the iconic stadium. In 2019, Inter and Milan began working hand-in-hand on a shared project at San Siro, but there is a restriction on the site owing to its historical and cultural significance. Hence, the two clubs have gone their own way with AC Milan looking to a new home at San Donato and Inter identifying Rozzano as their preferred location. Now, the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, has invited Inter and AC Milan to consider staying at the San Siro, which has significant building constraints. Sala said: “We will appeal against the limitations, but we will also invite the teams to think again about the possibility of staying at the San Siro. The appeal is an act of protection because it amounts to economic damage to one of our assets, so if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t feel like I’m protecting the stadium.”
GAME OF THE PEOPLE 