Coloccini joins Newcastle

Hamburg recover to draw with Bayern

Faye joins Premier new boys Stoke

Pizarro loaned out to Werder Bremen

Zenit St Petersburg claim they have lowered their asking price for Andrei Arshavin to clear the path for the Russia forward to move to Tottenham.

Newcastle United have completed the signing of 26-year-old defender Fabricio Coloccini from Deportivo La Coruna for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £10million.

The Argentine international, who played every minute of Depor’s La Liga campaign last season, has signed a five-year deal with the Magpies and is expected to slot in alongside Steven Taylor.

Goals from Jose Paolo Guerrero and Piotr Trochowski completed a remarkable comeback for Hamburg against champions Bayern Munich in the opening match of the new Bundesliga season on Friday.

Stoke manager Tony Pulis has completed his fourth signing of the summer after Charlton midfielder Amdy Faye joined for an undisclosed fee.The 31-year-old Senegal international has joined the Potters on a 12-month deal.

Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro has returned to Germany to join Werder Bremen on a one-year loan deal.

City’s European dream could be over while Villa stroll

Mutu to pay over £13 to Chelsea

Pompey and McKay charged by FA

The Beast set for move to Rome

Sven recalls veteren Blanco to Mexican Squad.

With just forty-eight hours to go before their first ever game in the top level of the English league, Hull City have once again had a busy day and have confirmed the signings of Wigan striker Marlon King on a season-long loan and Anthony Gardner in a £2.5m deal from Tottenham. King is Hull’s eight signing ahead of their first season in the top flight while Gardner is the club’s record signing. It has also been rumoured that boss Phil Brown has signed a new three year deal with the club.

Manchester City suffered a humiliating home defeat by Danish side FC Midtjylland in the first leg of their Uefa Cup second qualifying round tie while, Aston Villa beat FH Hafnarfjordur 4-1 to almost certainly seal their place in the next round. Gareth Barry played and scored and probably ends the speculation over whether he will join Liverpool.

Fifa has ordered former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu to pay his former club £13.68m in damages for breach of contract after he tested positive for cocaine. Chelsea signed the Romanian from Parma for £15m in 2003 but the following year he tested positive and was given a seven-month worldwide football ban.

Dimitar Berbatov is still a wanted man and the saga took another twist today with Barcelona expected to make a bid for the Bulgarian international. At a press conference today Tottenham boss Juande Ramos was still confident that Berbatov would start the season at White Hart Lane.

Portsmouth and agent Willie McKay have been charged by the Football Association with breaches of rules in relation to the transfer of Benjani Mwaruwari to and from the club. Under the FA’s football agents regulations, agents are prohibited from acting for two different clubs in two consecutive transactions involving the same player.

Roma and Real Madrid have agreed a fee for the transfer of Brazil forward Julio Baptista for nine million euros plus up to a further two million if he plays a certain number of games and helps his new team into the Champions League.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco has been named in Sven-Goran Eriksson’s 25-man Mexico squad for the World Cup qualifier against Honduras after a one-year absence. The 35-year-old Chicago Fire forward last played for the Tricolor as Mexico finished third in the 2007 Copa America.

Kevin Taylor

Champions Celtic start with win

Forest and Reading draw

Olympic football news from Beijing

FA Cup winners Portsmouth showed plenty of charity to Manchester United by missing three of their four penalties in a penalty shoot-out to hand the Charity Shield to last season’s Premier league winners. United dominated the game but couldn’t score and game ended 0-0.

A controversial Barry Robson penalty was enough for Celtic to get their defence off to a winning start in the Scottish Premier. Before the game the championship flag was raised before the game by the widow of the late Celtic coach Tommy Burns.

Reading started life back in the championship with a 0-0 draw at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest.

Over in Beijing, Ronaldinho scored two goals in seven minutes to put Brazil through to the Olympic football quarter-finals during a 5-0 thrashing of New Zealand.

Argentina maintained their perfect record to guarantee progression from Group A with a 1-0 win over Australia courtesy of a goal 14 minutes from time from Napoli’s Ezequiel Lavezzi.

Liverpool’s Ryan Babel fired in a rebound from his own header against the United States to put the Netherlands ahead in what ended as a 2-2 draw.

As the English Football league kicked off a week before it’s big brother the Premier, the honour of being first scorer went to Gary Hooper of Scunthorpe who scored after 57 minutes of their tie with Leeds. Leeds, who are League One title favourites came back to win 2-1.

Rangers got back to winning ways as the Scottish Premier kicked off beating Falkirk 1-0. Inverness gained their first ever win against Aberdeen beating them 2-0 at Pittodrie.

Paul Jewell is still waiting for his first league win as Derby manager as they lost their first game back in the Championship at home to Doncaster.

In League Two Dagenham got off to a magnificent start as they smashed six goals past Chester, while in League One Oldham won a seven-goal thriller against Millwall at Boundary Park after being 3-1 down before Millwall’s Robinson was sent-off.

Also in League Two three sides started with minus points, Rotherham gained three with a 1-0 win over Lincoln, Bournemouth drew with Gillingham 1-1, while Luton lost at home to remain with minus 30.

In Scotland new boys Annan Athletic are still unbeaten after their first home league game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Charlton have signed Fulham winger Hameur Bouazza on a season-long loan.

United’s Simpson joins Blackburn on loan

Ruud announces international retirement

England could play as Team GB in 2012

Referee’s could disrupt start of Scottish Premier Season

West Ham are to retire the number six shirt to mark the 50th anniversary of Bobby Moore’s debut for the club. The shirt will be worn for the last time in a memorial game on Saturday. The current number six, Matthew Upson, will then change to wearing number 15.

Blackburn Rovers have captured defender Danny Simpson from Manchester United on a season-long loan.

Real Madrid’s Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has announced his retirement from international football.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter says he would have no problems if Team GB were to field a football team in 2012 consisting of 11 English players.

The start of the Scottish Premier League this weekend could be delayed because of a strike threat from the country’s Referees’ Association.

Blackburn sign Villanueva to replace Bentley

French Trophee des Champions goes to Bordeaux

Italian’s set to strike

Ferenczi set to return home

Nigeria threaten Marseille

Annan Athletic got off a dream start in their first league match in senior football by sending Cowdenbeath to a humiliating 4-1 defeat at Central Park.

The league newcomers, who took the place of Gretna, turned in an inspired display to take all three points with a devastating second-half performance.

Blackburn Rovers have moved to fill the gap left by David Bentley’s departure by signing Chile midfielder Carlos Villanueva.

The Chilean player of the year has been capped 12 times by his country and has joined Rovers on an initial one-year loan deal from Audax Italiano.

Bordeaux denied Lyon a seventh consecutive Trophee des Champions success by defeating them in a penalty shootout at the Stade Chaban-Delmas on Saturday.

The Italian Footballers’ Association (AIC) on Sunday proposed a strike for the first day of the lower league season and said the opening matches in Serie A and B would start 30 minutes late. Authorities have set a limit on the number of players allowed in squads in Lega Pro, the new name for Italy’s Serie C1 and C2, and the AIC has said hundreds of players are therefore at risk of being made unemployed.

Barnsley striker Istvan Ferenczi will return to his homeland after agreeing to join Hungarian club Ferencvaros.

The Nigeria Football Federation has threatened action against French club Marseille if they do not release defender Taye Taiwo for the Olympic Games in China.