Football Monk

DELHI TO HOST INDIAN COLTS INSTEAD OF MUMBAI Delhi is yet to be the ground for India in the U-17 World Cup 2017 as FIFA agreed to shift the venue of the host team from Navi Mumbai to Delhi this week. Though some quarters fear that the colts may have to play their games in half empty stadium as support for football matches in the Capital has been unpredictable. The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) took examples from past to furnish their move as U-17 World Cup tournament director Javier Cappi said, “We do know that when India plays, the crowd in New Delhi respond. We have the numbers for the last big matches that India played in the Capital and Indian Football tends to have a very good attendance here .For example, capacity crowd for the Challenge Cup, almost 50,000 for the Audi Cup, almost 33,000for Nehru Cup. Those attendances are much better than what other venues have had when the senior national team has gone to play official matches and even World Cup qualifiers. So we...

The cash-rich Indian Super League has been finally granted official recognition by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), meaning there will be two national leagues in the country from 2017-18. The franchise-based league didn't have AFC recognition in its first three editions and has been trying for it for a while now. The AFC gave its consent to the All India Football Federation's proposal through a letter signed by general secretary Dato Windsor John, a top AIFF official told  PTI  on Wednesday. So, as of now, the winner of the I-league will participate in the AFC Champions League qualifiers, while the next ISL champion will be eligible for an AFC Cup qualifying slot. If the 2017-18 I-League winners fail to qualify — no Indian club has so far — they will get an automatic berth in the AFC Cup, the continent's second-tier tournament. The AFC, however, specified that the arrangement was a temporary one and required the stakeholders to come up with a long...

TRANSFER NEWS: UNITED ARE CLOSE TO SIGN MATIC Jose Mourinho has another key piece of transfer yet done. As Manchester United signs  Nemanja Matic for £35m, a reliable midfileld operator with whom Mourinho has already worked twice. Matic, who fitted from world beating holder to slow motion beanpole last season is not a player the Chelsea boss Conte desperately wants to sell but nor is he distraught  to see the 28 year old potentially leave the club. The signing of Nemanja shows that how deliberately Mourinho wants discipline in his red squad. It also asserts that this time the Portuguese wants to rely on his past weapons who can help him win .  Like us on faceboook

Although many clubs are in the fray, Liverpool may be a notch ahead of all. The relationship between 2 times ISL champions Atletico de Kolkata and Spanish giants Atletico Madrid being a bit shaky, the Indian Rojiblancos are looking for a new partner for the forthcoming season. If the partnership with Atletico Madrid really breaks, then the Indian side will surely require a partner-club, and if that really happens, Liverpool may be the club with whom ATK may tie up. Contrastingly, ATK officials deny the Liverpool tie-up talks. According to reports, ATK officials contacted with ATM officials, who in return said that they will take the final decisions on July. ATK has already received "offers" from various clubs as well, but the officials are in no hurry to come to a final decision. Other reports suggest that Luis Garcia is playing an active part in the possible tie-up with Liverpool. Luis is a Liverpool legend himself and the captain of the ATK side who won th...

Pep Guardiola aims to sting his former club by signing the Frenchman, who has been a common name in the Catalan's summer transfer spree. (The Sun) Ousmane Dembele, the teenage sensation from France, has excelled ever since he joined the German club last year from Rennes with 10 goals and 21 assists. What's more interesting is that he is brutal with both his feet, which makes him equally dangerous from both the wings. Dortmund is now holding a fee of 80million euros for him, a whopping 69.5million more that what they paid for the winger 12 months ago. Beating Barcelona for Dembele will be a huge coup for the City boss, but it's a risk worth taking. They would have to break their record transfer fee of 54million Euros, which they paid for Kevin De Bruyne in 2015. They must also be careful in the way they approach Dortmund, as the German Cup winners will surely try to protect their asset, which was quite evident from their director's words. When the Barcelona r...

    Antonio Conte is going to be given a £240 mil transfer war chest in order to improve his title winning squad (Sky Sports) Chelsea are planning to hand Antonio Conte a £240 mil transfer budget in order to improve his Premier League winning squad and challenge for the Champions League. With Diego Costa expected to leave in the summer along with a number of other fringe players, Chelsea will have to sign a number of players to have the necessary squad depth to challenge for four trophies next season. Tiemoue Bakayoko is expected to join from AS Monaco for a fee in the region of £35-£40 millions. He will partner N'Golo Kante in an all action midfield duo for the Blues. His arrival will however leave Nemenja Matic without a permanent spot in the first team. He is expected to leave Chelsea for Manchester United to reunite with former manager, Jose Mourinho. Romelu Lukaku has also been linked with the Blues for a summer move from Everton. He was one of...