Category: Soccer

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Manchester United announces extending Juan Mata’s contract

On Tuesday, English football club Manchester United announced Spanish midfielder Juan Mata has a one-year contract extension with the club. The club triggered the one-year-contract extension clause in Mata’s contract which would keep Mata tied with the club until 2019.

Speaking about the Spaniard, Manchester United’s manager José Mourinho said Mata is “[a]n important player for me; an important player for the club; an important player for the other players.” Juan Mata joined The Red Devils in 2014 on a four-and-half-year contract. Mata made the switch from London club Chelsea FC for then-club record transfer fee £37.1 million under David Moyes‘ management. Mourinho was Chelsea’s manager that time.

As of Tuesday, the Spaniard played 172 matches and scored 39 goals for Manchester United, and featured this season in 26 games in all competitions. In his tenure at the Old Trafford, he has won the FA Cup, EFL League Cup as well as the UEFA Europa League trophy.

The 29-year-old midfielder’s contract was previously set to expire at the end of the season. Manchester’s veteran midfielder Michael Carrick is set to retire at the end of the season. Earlier in January, United signed Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez from another London club Arsenal FC, on the expense of Armenian midfielder Henrick Mkhitaryan in the swap deal. Mourinho, who has been in-charge of Manchester United for one and half years, said they “need to get a player to compensate the situation” of Carrick’s retirement.

This article was originally publish on English language Wikinews on Thursday, February 1, 2018. It is therefore available under the Creative Commons Attribution 25 license.

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FFA e-League to be broadcast on Fox Sport and Twitch

Fox Sports is due to broadcast Football Federation Australia’s e-League starting February 15.

“Fox Sports have been supporters of football for many years, and we’ve been working very closely with them to bring the e-League to life,” said FFA’s Head of Commercial, Digital and Marketing, Luke Bould. “The e-League will connect an avid EA Sports FIFA 18 audience with the Hyundai A-League & Westfield W-League and is a first in the Australian sports industry.”

e-League content will also be streamed to Twitch.tv. Exactly what that content will be is unclear.

“We’re delighted to be able to take Australian football onto a new channel like Twitch, and we’re hoping to talk to new audiences around the world about the Hyundai A-League, Westfield W-League, and the newly created e-League,” he said.

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FFA Media Release: Determination of independent National Arbitration Tribunal

The independent National Arbitration Tribunal convened today, Friday 29 December 2017, in relation to an application for Determination of a Dispute lodged by the Hyundai A-League Clubs regarding the release of Hyundai A-League players to be part of the Australian U23 men’s national football team for the AFC U23 Championship which will be played in China from 9-27 January 2018

The independent Arbitrator, Dominic Villa, dismissed the Clubs’ application that they are not required to release the selected players.

FFA CEO David Gallop acknowledged the decision of the independent Arbitrator.

“Going into today’s hearing we believed that we had a strong case to select players from the A-League for national representative teams under the long standing contractual relationship with each A League club set out in the club participation agreement,” said Gallop.

“It is not ideal that this Asian Football Confederation (AFC) tournament falls outside a designated FIFA international window, however, the scheduling is outside FFA’s control. As the governing body of football in Australia it is vital that we are able to select strong, competitive squads for these events so that we can develop the best players possible to represent Australia at senior level. It is also very important that Australia is an active participant in Asian football. The players want the opportunity to represent their country and Australian football supporters want us to be competitive.

“FFA is also responsible for running the A-League and we consider seriously the impact these selections can have on the Clubs which is why in this case we limited the maximum number of players chosen from any one Club to three.

“Satisfying the requirements of FIFA regulations, AFC tournaments and the Clubs is complicated and a good example of the fact that decisions taken by the governing body regularly require a balancing of competing interests.

“We will continue to work with the Clubs and the players through Professional Footballers Australia to seek the best outcomes in these matters.”