Short Corner
Neuer in race to be fit for title decider
AFP
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has admitted that he may not be fit to play in Saturday’s Bundesliga title decider against Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Bayern captain has been sidelined with a calf injury since mid-April, and had hoped to return to full fitness in time for last weekend’s visit to RB Leipzig.
He is now in danger of missing the last league game of the season on Saturday, in which Bayern hope to wrap up a seventh successive Bundesliga title.
“I still have the Frankfurt game in my sights,” said Neuer on Monday at a ceremony in which he was presented with a Bavarian state medal for the work of his children’s charity, the Manuel Neuer Kids Foundation.
“Whether I can play or not I can’t say. I am working hard on it and we will have to see how it looks from one day to the next,” he said.
Mikel will lead Nigeria at Africa Cup of Nations
AFP
John Obi Mikel has confirmed he is available to return to Nigeria’s Super Eagles for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, according to a team official.
The former Chelsea star last played for Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and was not involved in the qualifying for this year’s Nations Cup.
“Mikel has met with coach (Gernot) Rohr in England and he has confirmed he will feature at the Nations Cup in Egypt,” said a top team official.
The 32-year-old Obi, now with English Championship side Middlesbrough, has won 85 caps and scored six goals since his full international debut in 2005 against Libya.
The tournament in Egypt is widely seen as the last hurrah for the player in international football.
Man City could be banned from Champions League
AFP
European football’s financial regulators are poised to recommend that newly minted Premier League champions Manchester City be barred from the Champions League, the New York Times reported Monday. Members of the investigatory chamber of UEFA’s financial control board met two weeks ago in Switzerland to finalize their conclusions, the newspaper said.
“The investigatory panel’s leader, the former prime minister of Belgium Yves Leterme, will have the final say on the submission to a separate adjudicatory chamber, which could be filed as soon as this week. The body is expected to seek at least a one-season ban,” the Times said.
It was unclear if such a ban, if levied, would be enforced next season or in the 2020-21 campaign, the Times said, noting that with qualifying for Europe’s most prestigious and lucrative club championship set to start in June there is little time to finalize a sanction.
Manchester City would also have the right to appeal such a ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.