There’s good news and bad news for Arsenal as Freddie Ljungberg agrees a new deal but Robert Pires delays further contract talks until January.
With the North London club about to commence their final season at Highbury, both Gunners have a year left on their current contracts.
The Coca-Cola Football League Championship launches a new campaign called ‘Everything To Play For’.- There’s good news and bad news for Arsenal as Freddie Ljungberg agrees a new deal but Robert Pires delays further contract talks until January. With the North London club about to commence their final season at Highbury, both Gunners have a year left on their current contracts. Ljungberg signs an extension to his contract, which will keep him at the club until 2009. He has scored 68 goals in 265 matches since he was signed from Halmstads for £3million in September 1998. Pires wants a new two-year deal but has only been offered a 12-month extension. The 32 year-old Frenchman, who has been at Highbury since July 2000, has been linked with moves to Juventus and Galatasaray.
- The Coca-Cola Football League Championship launches a new campaign called ‘Everything To Play For’. Far from being portrayed as the Premiership’s poor relations, it aims to build on recent figures that revealed that the Championship is the fourth best attended division in Europe and the sixth highest revenue generator.
- The fall-out continues for Celtic’s shock 5-0 defeat at Artmedia Bratislava with the realisation that the almost certain early elimination spells financial disaster for the Parkhead club. Board, players and management past and present all come under fire following their biggest-ever defeat in European competition and the heaviest loss anywhere since a 6-0 loss at Kilmarnock on 27 March, 1963.
- A Football League tribunal decides that Leeds United must pay Brighton & Hove Albion up to £850,000 for England Under-21 defender Daniel Harding. They are ordered to must pay an initial £450,000 in two instalments. The further £400,000 depends on appearances, international caps and possible promotion success.
- FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi criticises European clubs’ lucrative tours of Asia. He says ‘the big leagues in Europe become popular in Asia but we get the feedback from the Asian countries looking to develop their leagues and they have problems. They need sponsorship income themselves but that is going to European clubs.’ Premiership clubs Manchester United, Everton, Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers have all been in the Far East this summer.
