Football, Premier League: The English football club Tottenham Hotspur has struck gold when looking for a new team manager. The Italian Antonio Conte succeeds the Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo, who was sacked on Monday. Conte receives a contract with the ailing Spurs until June 2023 plus an option for an extension and should be loud for it Gazetta dello Sport Collect 18 million euros.
“Our merger didn’t come about last summer because the end of my time at Inter was too fresh and emotional,” said the 52-year-old in a statement from the club. Conte had recently led Inter Milan to the Serie A championship title, but terminated his contract in the summer. Conte won the Premier League title with Chelsea in 2017. Under Espirito Santo, Tottenham have already suffered five defeats in ten league games this season and recently slipped from first to ninth place.
Soccer, England: First division club Newcastle United is apparently pushing ahead with personnel restructuring after the controversial takeover by a consortium from Saudi Arabia. Unai Emery is said to be at the Premier League club, according to a report by BBC are facing a commitment as a team manager. Accordingly, the Magpies want to make the commitment before the league game at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. In order to buy Emery from his current contract with the Spanish first division club Villarreal until 2023, a transfer fee of around seven million euros is under discussion.
Emery, who had already coached Paris St. Germain and Arsenal FC but was sacked there, had won the Europa League with Villarreal last season. After the dismissal of team manager Steve Bruce around two weeks ago, Newcastle are still on the penultimate place in the table without a win. A group of investors, which is largely influenced by the Saudi Arabian state fund under the control of the highly controversial Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had recently taken over the club. The Premier League waved the deal through despite vehement criticism from human rights organizations.
Tennis, Billie Jean King Cup: The German tennis women finally have their backs to the wall after Andrea Petkovic’s opening defeat against Switzerland. The Darmstadt player had to admit defeat to Viktorija Golubic 4: 6, 5: 7 in the first individual on Tuesday evening. If Angelique Kerber (Kiel) subsequently loses against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, the preliminary round for the selection of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) is already sealed before the final double. After the 1: 2 on Monday against the hosts and co-favorites Czech Republic, the DTB players have to defeat Switzerland in order to preserve the chance of the semi-finals. Since only the winners of the four groups of three move into the semi-finals on Friday, the team of captain Rainer Schüttler should also hope for a narrow defeat for the Czechs against Switzerland on Thursday. As with her individual defeat against the Czech Republic, Petkovic did not find the game well at all against Golubic and ran after a 4-0 deficit. Despite her subsequent increase in performance, she could not prevent the loss of the first set, but she could make the second round narrow with much more snappy body language and even earn three set balls. But right after the missed opportunities, she conceded the decisive break.
Sepp Blatter, indictment: The former Fifa President Joseph S. Blatter (85) and the former Uefa boss Michel Platini (66) have to answer to court in Switzerland, as expected. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) has indicted the two ex-officials on suspicion of fraud and other offenses before the Federal Criminal Court. The authority announced on Tuesday. “I am looking forward to the trial before the Federal Criminal Court with optimism,” said Blatter on request. He hoped “that this story will come to an end and that all facts will be properly dealt with”. The BA has been conducting criminal proceedings against Blatter since September 2015 because of an unresolved payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) that the world football association Fifa made to the then President of Uefa in 2011. According to Blatter, the payment was made under an oral contract for a consultancy that Platini performed between 1998 and 2002.
The BA sees it very differently. In addition to fraud, she also accuses Blatter of embezzlement, unfaithful business management and forgery of documents. Platini has to answer for the aid. “The evidence gathered by the BA has reinforced the suspicion that this payment to Platini was made without a legal basis,” said the authority: “This payment damaged Fifa’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini.” The Frenchman was originally only supposed to be heard as a “supporting witness”. Because of the suspicion of complicity, the proceedings were then also extended to Platini. The matter brought both of them a multi-year ban on a sports-political level. Among other things, this prevented Platini from running for the office of FIFA President. Blatter and Platini have always denied the allegations.
Soccer, Lionel Messi: RB Leipzig has one less worry in the Champions League duel against the star ensemble from Paris St. Germain. Lionel Messi will be out on Wednesday (9 p.m. / DAZN) due to thigh problems and knee pain. In the first leg (3-2), Messi had led his team to victory with a brace. The Italian European champion Marco Verratti (hip injury) does not travel to Leipzig either. PSG announced this on Tuesday. Leipzig coach Jesse Marsch does not want to hang the failure of the 34-year-old too high. Messi is “one of the best players in the world,” said the American: “We didn’t play against Neymar and Di Maria in the first leg either, so it will be another difficult task.” Meanwhile, Kylian Mbappe returns to the French squad. The world champion was not there on Friday in the 2-1 win against champions OSC Lille because of an ENT infection. Paris is at the top of the table both in the domestic league and in Group A of the premier class. The pointless Leipzig would have already missed the last sixteen if they lost again.
Basketball, NBA: Spectacular dunk, 28 points and praise from all corners: With the best performance of his career, NBA newcomer Franz Wagner led the Orlando Magic to an away win at the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 20-year-old Berliner excelled at 115: 97 on Monday evening (local time), especially in the last quarter, when he scored ten points and set an exclamation point with the dunk against two opponents. “I’ve never dunk like this in my life,” he told the German press agency. “I just tried to jump as high as I could.” After four defeats in a row, the success was only the second win of the season for Orlando Magic.
Dennis Schröder, on the other hand, goes into the duel with the brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner on Wednesday (local time) without any success. Germany’s best basketball professional also lost to the Chicago Bulls with the Boston Celtics and is now five defeats in seven games. Schröder got 13 points and five assists in front of his home crowd.
Fifa, fans: The world football association Fifa has again punished the Hungarian national team for the misconduct of their supporters. Because of fan riots in the World Cup qualifier against England at London’s Wembley Stadium on October 12, the Hungarians will have to forego spectator support in their last game in Group I on November 15 in Poland, as Fifa announced on Monday. In addition, the Hungarian association has to pay 75,000 Swiss francs (around 71,000 euros).
At the 1-1 draw in London, dozens of emergency services clashed with guest fans in the stands. Shortly after the game started, officials entered the stands to arrest a spectator over a racist incident. Because of the racist failures of their fans in the first leg against England (0: 4) on September 2 in Budapest, FIFA had already punished the Hungarian association with an exclusion of spectators and a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs (a good 183,000 euros). Hungary had to play its World Cup qualifier against Albania (0: 1) on October 9 in front of empty ranks.
The Albanian and Polish associations were also sanctioned on Monday, according to Fifa. Albania will have to play their last qualifying home game against Andorra on November 15 in camera. The association was fined 150,000 francs (around 142,000 euros). The reason: In Tirana, after the 1-0 winner of the Poles on October 12th, plastic bottles flew towards the cheering players. The game was interrupted for around 20 minutes. Polish fans were also uncomfortable at the time. As a result, Poland will have to do without supporters in their last away game in Andorra on November 12th and pay 50,000 Swiss francs (around 47,000 euros).