The Offside Daily: FA suspends Platini support, Manchester United’s £130m Brazilian bid and Ranieri’s clean-sheet incentive

Posted on October 16, 2015 in The Offside Daily

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1. UEFA President Michel Platini’s bid to become President of FIFA will not be supported by the Football Association until the ongoing investigation into a payment made from the incumbent, Sepp Blatter, to Platini in 2011 is concluded.

2. Jose Mourinho took the opportunity at his book launch last night to criticise the Football Association and has since decided to appeal the £50,000 fine and one-match suspended Stadium ban that the Association have charged him with.

3. Newcastle United manager Steve McLaren believes the season-ending injury sustained by first-choice goalkeeper Tim Krul could cost his side ’15-20 points’ this season.

4. Amid talk of a possible six-month ban for Brazilian striker Neymar, thanks to action being taken by his former club Santos, the player’s father has revealed he was the subject of a £130m bid from Manchester United over the summer.

5. On the subject of Neymar, former Brazilian international Juninho has made comments about his teammate Willian, noting that he thinks the Chelsea winger isn’t too far below the level of the Barcelona star.

6. What’s the about class being permanent? Check out Paul Scholes’ absolute screamer of a goal scored in an exhibition game in Hong Kong yesterday (ESPN).

7. A non-league football match had a delayed start due to the ref forgetting about the game (The Northern Echo).

8. As far as training drills go, we were pretty mesmerised by this one from the Metz under-15s (The Guardian).

9. Claudio Ranieri believes the offer of Pizza may not be enough for his players and will instead up it to a ‘real slap up meal’ in exchange for a clean sheet (The Daily Star).

10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, ever the modest one, is under the belief that he is only improving, saying ‘I am like wine, I improve with age’. We’re not going to argue with him (The Daily Mail).

By Julian Myles