Ighalo kept away from United ground due to virus quarantine

Stringer via www.imago-images.de

Odion Ighalo, Manchester United's January signing from China, has been training away from the club's facilities as a precaution due to the coronavirus outbreak, British media reported on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Nigerian international striker joined United on loan until the end of the season on January 31 -- transfer deadline day -- from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.

He is due to meet with his United team-mates for the first time this weekend ahead of Monday's clash with Chelsea as they have been away at a training camp in Spain -- Ighalo did not travel because of fears he might have problems re-entering the United Kingdom.

Both The Times and The Daily Mirror reported Ighalo had been told to stay away from the club's Carrington training centre -- where hundreds of staff work -- as he went through a 14-day quarantine period.

The former Watford star -- who has not played a competitive match since December 6 -- has instead been put through his paces by a personal trainer at the GB Taekwondo Headquarters in Manchester, not far from rivals Manchester City's ground.

The British government called the novel coronavirus a "serious and imminent threat", and said anyone with the disease can now be forcibly quarantined if they are deemed a threat to public health. There are nine confirmed cases in Britain.

More than 1,350 people have died in China from the virus, and nearly 60,000 others have been infected.

Most cases have involved people who had been in Wuhan, the quarantined central Chinese city where the virus emerged late last year, or people infected by others who had been at the epicentre.

Ex-Everton defender Yobo to assist Nigeria coach

imago sportfotodienst

Former Nigeria captain and Everton defender Joseph Yobo has been named the country's new assistant coach, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced.

Yobo, 39, has replaced Imama Amapakabo, who assisted head coach Gernot Rohr when Salisu Yusuf was banned last year for accepting cash from undercover journalists posing as agents.

Yobo won a century of caps for Nigeria at full international level and led the Super Eagles to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title and the last 16 of the 2014 World Cup.

Yobo made 258 appearances for Everton and also played for Standard Liege, Marseille and Fenerbahce.

French assembly votes to ban games on stadium disaster anniversary

via www.imago-images.de

France's National Assembly voted on Thursday to ban professional football matches on May 5 in homage to the victims of the Corsican stadium disaster.

In 1992, a stand collapsed at Bastia's Furiani stadium just before their French Cup semi-final against Marseille, killing 18 people and injuring more than 2,300.

For more than 25 years, organisations representing victims and their families have been calling for a ban on matches on the anniversary, in the face of the opposition from the French league and the French football federation, who were concerned about the scheduling of their competitions.

Led by Corsican deputy Michel Castellani, the bill was adopted at first reading, by 85 votes to one. It must now be ratified by the Senate.

The only vote against came from Anne-Christine Lang, of President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche party, who said it was not up to MPs to "legislate on emotion".

The proposed law would ban professional matches on May 5 and require teams in amateur games on May 5 to observe a minute's silence and the wear black armbands.

In July 2015, then Secretary of State for Sports Thierry Baillard introduced a freeze on matches when May 5 fell on a Saturday.

This year May 5 falls on a Tuesday. It does not fall on a Sunday until 2024 and on a Saturday until 2030.

Klinsmann bumped off Hertha Berlin board after quitting as coach

Bernd König via www.imago-images.de

Jurgen Klinsmann has been stripped of a place on the supervisory board at Hertha Berlin following his shock resignation as head coach of the Bundesliga club after just 10 weeks in charge, it was confirmed Thursday.

"Unfortunately, the manner in which Klinsmann took his leave means further co-operation with him on the supervisory board is not conceivable," Hertha's investor Lars Windhorst told a press conference.

"In the club's interest, constructive co-operation can't continue in this way."

The 1990 World Cup winner, who only took charge of Hertha in November, dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when he quit as head coach, three days after a 3-1 home defeat to Mainz pushed them towards the German league's relegation zone.

In a Facebook video, Klinsmann, 55, initially said he wanted to return to his position on the supervisory board, a position he only held for three weeks last autumn before stepping into the head coach role.

However, he later criticised Hertha's general manager Michael Preetz, hinting at a power struggle, which left Windhorst with little choice but to rule out Klinsmann's return in an advisory capacity.

"It is regrettable that he has made a rash decision," said Windhorst, a wealthy German entrepreneur.

"You can do that in your youth, but not in professional life among adults, where you have to fulfil agreements.

"We were on the verge of attracting new sponsors because of him, so it is all the more regrettable how it ended," Windhorst added.

Klinsmann's assistant Alexander Nouri is in charge as caretaker coach for the immediate future including Saturday's game at bottom side Paderborn.

Preetz said Klinsmann's resignation was "out of the blue" after the former striker had initially agreed to coach Hertha for the rest of the season.

"I have experienced a lot, but what happened on Tuesday morning was new for me," admitted the Hertha boss.

"We agreed to work together for the rest of the season, the first goal was to lead the team out of the relegation places.

"If there are areas of conflict, I'm used to discussing and resolving them together. You can't do that if you turn and run away."

Klinsmann led hosts Germany to third place at their home World Cup in 2006 and steered the USA to the last 16 of the Brazil 2014 finals.

However, the Hertha position was only his second job in club football, following a similarly ill-fated spell at Bayern Munich in 2009, which lasted just 10 months.

His former Germany team-mate Lothar Matthaeus said the Berlin fiasco will make it harder for Klinsmann to get another job in the Bundesliga.

"If you quit after 10 weeks, the name Klinsmann will certainly drop down a peg or two and it's going to be very difficult to change that," said Matthaeus, Germany's 1990 World Cup winning captain and TV pundit.

Guardiola fears sack if Real Madrid tie goes wrong

John Walton via www.imago-images.de

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he could be sacked if he fails to beat Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Guardiola has won five major trophies in three seasons at the Etihad, but a failure to progress beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League has been the big disappointment of his reign.

Guardiola's side trail Liverpool at the top of the Premier League by a mammoth 22 points this season with their campaign now set to be judged on how they fare in Europe.

"I want to win the Champions League. I dream (of it) and I will enjoy preparing for the games against Madrid," Guardiola told Sky Sports.

"If we don't beat them, OK, come the chairman or the sport director and say, 'It's not good enough, we want the Champions League, I'm going to sack you.'

"I don't know (if this would happen). It has happened many times and could maybe happen."

Guardiola has a contract at the Etihad until the end of next season.

After four years at Barcelona and three in charge of Bayern Munich, he is expected to fulfil his deal and enter a fifth season at one club for the first time in his managerial career.

But the Catalan coach also hit back at the suggestion that the success or failure of a season should only be measured in trophies.

"We give a bad, bad message for the new generation, for our kids, to just count the winner, the trophies to win," added Guardiola.

"You say the season is a disaster but if you win the Champions League it will be exceptional. Why? It is difficult to win it.

"If you don't, we can say in more than 100 years of history (there) were 100 failure seasons for Manchester City. That is not true."

Weather-hit Bundesliga derby rescheduled for March 11

unknown

Borussia Moenchengladbach's home game against Cologne, which was postponed last Sunday due to Storm Ciara, has been rescheduled for March 11 at 1730 GMT, the German Football League (DFL) announced Thursday.

The early kick-off time is necessary to avoid clashing with the Champions League, round of 16, second leg matches between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund, as well as Liverpool against Atletico Madrid the same night.

There is just over 50 kilometres (30 miles) between Moenchengladbach and Cologne and the Rhineland derby was also rescheduled to avoid the period of February 20-25, when a series of street carnivals are planned in the region.

Officials in Moenchengladbach called off Sunday's home league game as they could not guarantee the safety of travelling fans after the match as heavy storms rampaged across western Germany.

With a game in hand, Gladbach currently sit fourth in Germany's top flight with Cologne in 13th and six points from the relegation places.

Three things on new Chelsea signing Hakim Ziyech

via www.imago-images.de

Moroccan international Hakim Ziyech became Chelsea manager Frank Lampard's first signing on Thursday when he joined the Londoners on a 40 million-euro ($43.4 million) deal from Dutch side Ajax.

Here AFP Sport picks out three things about the 26-year-old who overcame a troubled youth to become an integral part of an outstanding Ajax team:

Ziyech was born in the Netherlands, the youngest of eight children of Moroccan parents. He was close to his metal worker father Mohamed who died when he was just 10. Although he found solace in football, the shock of that early loss had an impact on him later. The family's hopes of one of the children succeeding in football lay with him after two of his elder brothers Faouzi and Hicham saw their careers peter out after being convicted of burglary. They were sacked by their respective clubs' academies. "Our last hope in the family was Hakim," said Faouzi.

Snapped up by Heerenveen academy largely due to his mentor Aziz Doufikar -- the first Moroccan to play professional football in Holland -- he failed to settle with his Armenian foster family and instead fell in with the wrong crowd leading to run-ins with the law.

As Ziyech's career threatened to spiral out of control, Doufikar and his agent Mustapha Nakhli took him in hand with the latter renting an apartment in Amsterdam in 2012 and sharing it with his then 18-year-old client.

"As a little kid I didn't realise what it was like to have no father," said Ziyech.

"I was 14 or 15 when I got really grumpy. I was really on the verge. I closed myself off to the outside world."

Ziyech was much coveted after his talent shone under first Marco van Basten at Heerenveen and then after he moved to Twente. Elevation to the Dutch national side, then coached by Danny Blind, beckoned -- he had already played for the U-19, U-20 and U-21 Dutch national sides -- but he opted to play for Morocco making his senior debut in 2015.

"Danny Blind can put as much pressure on me as he wants," Ziyech explained to the website of his then club Twente in November 2016.

"I will not play for the Netherlands. Choosing one's national team is not done with the brain but with the heart. In my case without hesitation it was Morocco. I have always felt Moroccan even though I was born in Holland. Lots of people will never understand this feeling."

His former club manager van Basten had been one of those, lambasting both him and fellow Dutch-Moroccan Oussama Tannane for choosing Morocco.

"Hakim Ziyech and Oussama Tannane are idiots," stormed the former Dutch playing icon to De Telegraaf in March 2016.

"How can you be so stupid to choose Morocco if the Dutch national side are clearly interested in you."

The change in his behaviour off the pitch reaped benefits on the field for Ajax.

He shone last season in which he scored 21 goals and provided 24 assists as Ajax won a domestic double and came within sight of the Champions League final only to be denied by Tottenham's extraordinary late second leg comeback.

Indeed Ajax director of football Marc Overmars recommended Ziyech to his former club Arsenal last summer seeing him as a viable alternative to the inconsistent Mesut Ozil.

"I believe Hakim Ziyech is better than Mesut Ozil," Overmars told AD.

"I would advise Arsenal to sell Ozil and buy Ziyech for half of the money, but they didn't listen to me."