FA charge Joey Barton with violent conduct

French born Bougherra joins Rangers despite WBA interest

Middlesbrough fined for last season’s bad disciplinary record

Doncaster shatter transfer record to sign Mills

Sven picks first Mexican squad since taking over

Manchester City eased past their Faroe Island opponents EB Streymur 2-0 tonight to progress to the next stage of the UEFA Cup. Martin Petrov and Darius Vassell scored the goals that gave them a comfortable home win at Oakwell the home of Barnsley and a 4-0 aggregate win. They will find out tomorrow (Friday 1st August) who they face in the next qualifying round. The crowd just about summed up the occasion though with a paltry 7,334 attending.

The Football Association have charged Joey Barton of Newcastle with violent condut over his assault of former team-mate Ousmane Dabo. Barton was given a four-month suspended sentence for the assault after addimiting ABH. The FA have had to wait until the criminal investigations were complete before charging Barton over the incident which happened while he was at Manchester City in May 2007.

Charlton defender Madjid Bougherra has turned down an offer from West Bromwich to join Rangers for £2.5m. The Algerian centre back has agreed a four year deal with the Ibrox club.

Middlesbrough have been fined £20,000 and a suspended £30,000 after finishing with the worst disciplinary record in the Premier League last season. Gareth Southgate’s men racked up 85 yellow cards and two reds, with George Boateng, who has now moved to Hull City, being the worst offender after being given nine yellow cards.

Burnley, Darlington and Macclesfield were all also fined after finishing bottom of the disciplinary tables in their respective leagues.

Doncaster have completed the Manchester City defender Matt Mills on a three-year deal for a club record £300,000, the 22-year old played 44 times for Doncaster on loan last season.

Mexico coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has included Brazil-born midfielder Leandro Augusto Oldoni in his first squad since being appointed manager in June.The 23-man squad, comprised entirely of home-based players, will meet up as preparation for the third stage of the World Cup qualifiers, which begins on August 20 against Honduras at the Estadio Azteca.

Kevin Taylor

Hull City take Gardner on loan

Diouf makes switch to Sunderland

Muntari goes from Pompey to Italy

Ethiopia suspended by FIFA

Liverpool have completed the signing of striker Robbie Keane from Tottenham for a fee that could rise to £20.3m, the Irish striker has agreed a four-year deal with the Anfield club.
 
Hull City have completed the loan signing of Tottenham defender Anthony Gardner until January.

El-Hadji Diouf has moved to Sunderland for around £2.5m he expressed his desire to leave Bolton Wanderers despite having a year of his contract still left.

Italian champions Inter Milan have completed the signing of midfielder Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth.

Football’s world governing body, Fifa, has suspended the Ethiopian Football Federation with immediate effect. The suspension means that Ethiopia could miss their next 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup League of Nations qualifier at home to Morocco on the weekend of the 5-7 September.

A blog on the AFS wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the News of The World Football Annual that is now in it’s 122nd year according to a proud claim on it’s cover, but this year there’s a new publisher and a new sponsor and the book has been re-launched as the Nationwide Football Annual.

Nationwide have agreed to back publication of the book, which is thought to be the second-oldest sporting annual after Wisden, for the forthcoming 2008/09 season.

The book was launched by former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

Nationwide have agreed to back the book for this year, no decision has been made on whether that sponsorship will continue to next year or not as yet.

The book will once again be edited by Stuart Barnes but will now be published by
Randall Northam of Sportsbooks, this year it has 544 pages whereas the first edition 121 years ago had just 16 pages.

For more details, click on the Book Review section on the front page of our site, where the new Nationwide Football Annual is currently available from Amazon for the bargain price of £5.24, plus postage.

It’s definitely on my shopping list.

Hammers sign Behrami from Lazio

Sunderland sign Tainio, Chimbonda next

Blatter says clubs must release players for Olympics

Hull City wait on King

Borussia Dortmund defended their German Super Cup title with a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.

West Ham have completed the £5million signing of Switzerland international Valon Behrami from Lazio.

The 23-year-old can play at right-back or in midfield and has signed a five-year deal with the Premier League club after passing a medical.

Sunderland have announced the signing of Tottenham midfielder Teemu Tainio, with Pascal Chimbonda’s arrival expected to be confirmed imminently.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Wednesday that clubs must release their eligible Under-23 players for the Olympic soccer tournament despite the claims of Europe’s leading clubs that they were under no obligation to do so.

Hull City’s bid to sign Wigan’s Marlon King is being held up, the two clubs have agreed a fee but King and Wigan are now discussing the terms of his departure.

Chelsea deny Eto’o bid

Ronaldinho to wear Milan’s No.80 shirt

Egyptian signs year loan at Wigan

Swansea fans set for another taste of Brandy

Kalou’s brother goes Dutch
 
Essien has committed his long-term future to Chelsea by signing a five-year deal, the 25-year-old Ghanian midfield has been a major success since joining from Lyon in 2005 for £24m.

Chelsea have denied making a bid for Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o despite claims from the Cameroon international he has received offers from the Blues, Tottenham and Inter Milan.

Ronaldinho will wear the number 80 jersey at AC Milan, the club have confirmed, he had hoped to wear the number 10 shirt - his preferred choice for both Barca and Brazil, however, that number was already taken by Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf, and Ronaldinho has settled for a reference to the year of his birth, 1980.

Wigan Athletic have completed the signing of 25-year-old Egypt international Amr Zaki on a one-year loan deal.

Manchester United striker Febian Brandy will be back at Swansea City next season on a six-month loan deal.

Dutch club Heerenveen have signed forward Bonaventure Kalou on a free transfer. The 30-year-old Ivory Coast international is the older brother of Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou.

Kevin Taylor

Kapo wraps up transfer to Wigan

Hull City clinch triple transfer swoop

Linfield face an early Champions League exit

Kaunas likely to face Rangers next

Bristol City clinch Moteab deal
 
Hereford bring in two new faces 

Hibs keeper going to Beijing

Alexander Hleb has completed his £11.8m move to Barcelona from Arsenal. The 27-year-old Belarus midfielder had a medical in the Spanish city on Wednesday.

Wigan have signed midfielder Olivier Kapo after agreeing a £3.5m fee with Birmingham City.

Hull City have completed the signings of Peter Halmosi, George Boateng and Tony Warner ahead of the club’s debut season in the Premier League.

Linfield are facing an early Champions League exit after losing 2-0 to Dinamo Zagreb in the first leg of their first round qualifying tie.

Former Hearts loan player Pilibaitis scored twice for Lithuanian side Kaunas as they cruised to a 4-1 win in Andorra over Santa Coloma in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier and look set to face Rangers in the next round.

Bristol City have signed Egyptian international striker Emad Moteab for a club record fee of £1.5m, subject to a work permit.

Hereford have signed two players from Premier League clubs, Robbie Threlfall and Bradley Hudson-Odoi. Liverpool full-back Threlfall, 19, has signed on a season-long loan. Fulham striker Hudson-Odoi, 22, has also signed on a one-year deal.
 
Hibs will be without goalkeeper Yves Ma-Kalambay for the start of the new season he was called up for Belgium’s Olympic squad.

Hibernian dumped out of Intertoto Cup

Ronaldinho not likely to join Manchester City

Stoke sign Austin and agree fee for Carson

Another Rooney set to grace professional football

Audacious bid by Marseille fans to bring Drogba back

With just thirty-two days to go to the new season, transfer gossip is still very much in the headlines as well as a few pre-season matches.

Manchester United visitied Fergie’s old home of Pittodrie and beat their hosts 2-0 with a slightly less mobile Rooney scoring one of them.

Liverpool made the short hop across the Mersey to beat Tranmere with Yossi Benayoun scoring the only goal of the game, Liverpool now travel to Switzerland while United head for South Africa to continue their preparations for the new season.

Hibernian’s European season is over after they were beaten 2-0 by Danish side Elfsborg in the Intertoto Cup to lose 4-0 on aggregate, meanwhile Aston Villa will face Odense BK in the third and final round of the competition.

Transfer news still centre’s more around gossip than any actual deals.

Ronaldinho looks set to snub Manchester City for AC Milan.

Premier new boys Stoke have signed Jamaican midfielder Rudolph Austin, subject to him getting a work permit, for £1m. They have also had a £4m bid accepted for Liverpool keeper Scott Carson.

While Wayne Rooney was scoring for Manchester United over the weekend his younger brother John was putting pen to paper on a two-year professional contract with Macclesfield Town.

Marseille fans have launched an appeal to try and raise the money to buy back their former star Didier Drogba who looks likely to head out of the door at Stamford Bridge. And raised 1.5 million dollars before their website crashed.

Kevin Taylor

Fowler signs for Blackburn

Villa sign Sidwell from Chelsea

Beckham selected for MLS All Stars

Phillips makes short move across Birmingham

Luton will start next season on an unprecedented minus 30 points after a ruling by the Football League.

The Hatters had already been deducted 10 points by the Football Association after being found guilty of misconduct for paying agents via a third party.

The penalty came after Luton failed to satisfy the League’s insolvency rules.

The combined 30-point deduction is the biggest in Football League history.

Meanwhile, Bournemouth are also waiting to see if they will face a further 15-point deduction from the start of their League Two campaign.

Robbie Fowler has signed for Blackburn after rejecting a pay-as-you-play deal from Cardiff.

The 33-year-old ex-England striker was expected to sign a new one-year deal at the Bluebirds but told the club on Thursday he would be joining Rovers.

Aston Villa have made their first signing of the summer after Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell finalised his £5m move and signed a three-year deal.

David Beckham has been selected in the Major League Soccer All-Star team which will play West Ham in a friendly in Toronto later this month.

Kevin Phillips has signed a two-year contract with Birmingham City, turning down a further season at West Brom.

Kevin Taylor

Turkish Delight for Kewell

Aragones also makes his way to Turkey

Premier new boys clinch deal for Geovanni

Italian’s facing Serie A match-fixing probe again

Liga de Quito defeated Fluminense 3-1 in a shootout to become the first Ecuadorean club to win the Copa Libertadores last Wednesday.

In front of 80,000 fans at the Maracana Liga’s goalkeeper Jose Francisco Cevallos saved three penalties in the shootout after the match had ended 5-5 on aggreagate.

Liga had taken a 5-2 aggregate lead before Brazilian playmaker Thiago Neves scored a hat-trick to take the game into extra-time.

With the victory, Liga also earn a spot in FIFA’s Club World Cup held later this year.

Australian Harry Kewell is set to put pen to paper on a three-year contract with Turkish side Galatasaray after being shown the door by Liverpool after five seasons.

Spain’s Euro 2008-winning coach Luis Aragones has signed a two-year deal to become coach of Fenerbahce.

The 69-year-old, who led Spain to their first major tournament win in 44 years last month, replaces Brazilian legend Zico in charge of the Turkish club.

Hull City have agreed a two-year deal with former Manchester City midfielder Geovanni, subject to a medical.

Five Italian players have been charged over alleged match-fixing of last season’s Serie A fixtures between Atalanta and relegated Livorno.

Manchester City busy as clearout begins

Crespo officially leaves Stamford Bridge

Villa sign Davies but Barry saga drags on

Mascherano set to miss start of season due to Olympics

Newcastle sign Argentinean winger

Agogo moves to Egypt

Annan Athletic have gained entry to Division Three after a vote by the 29 clubs in the Scottish Football League. They will replace Gretna after beating off the challenge of Cove Rangers, Spartans, Preston Athletic and Edinburgh City.

Manchester City have released Geovanni, Emile Mpenza and Paul Dickov.

Geovanni’s one-year deal has come to an end and the 27-year-old appears set for a move to Hull City. Striker Dickov, 35, had loan spells with Crystal Palace and Blackpool last season, while fellow forward Mpenza, 30, leaves after 16 months at the club.

PSV Eindhoven have signed Manchester City keeper Andreas Isaksson for an undisclosed fee. Isaksson, who represented Sweden during Euro 2008, only played six times for City last year after playing second fiddle to Kasper Schmeichel and Joe Hart.

Stiker Hernan Crespo has officially left Chelsea after the Argentine’s contract at Stamford Bridge expired. Crespo joined Chelsea in 2003 and scored 10 league goals in his first season for the Blues.

Aston Villa have completed the signing of defender Curtis Davies from West Bromwich Albion for an undisclosed fee after he spent last season their on loan.

According to Villa’s website Gareth Barry will not join Liverpool until Villa’s asking price is met. Villa have rejected a bid of around £15m for the 27-year-old midfielder.

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano has been named in Argentina’s squad for the Olympic Games in August as one ofthe three overage players allowed in the Under-23 squad.

Newcastle have signed Argentina winger Jonas Gutierrez from Real Mallorca on a five-year deal.

Nottingham Forest striker Junior Agogo has completed move to Egyptian top-flight side El Zamalek.

Kevin Taylor