Manchester United are to celebrate their latest Premier League title triumph with an open-top bus parade through the city.
The club, whose 20th title was confirmed on Monday night, said on their official website they will be going through Manchester on Monday, May 13, starting at Old Trafford and ending in the city centre.
That will come the day after Alex Ferguson and his players get their hands on the trophy following their final home game of the campaign against Swansea but before the end of the season on May 19.
Chelsea step up compensation bid
Chelsea are taking Juventus to a FIFA dispute panel this week to try to claim millions of pounds in compensation for former striker Adrian Mutu who was sacked by the Blues after testing positive for cocaine in 2004.
After serving a seven-month ban Mutu went on to sign for Juve via Livorno – who acted as an intermediary because at the time Juventus had filled their quota of overseas players.
The Swiss courts have ordered Mutu to pay compensation of €17.2 million to Chelsea but he has still not paid up, and the club is now pursuing legal action against Juventus and Livorno, holding them to be liable for payment because they signed him for nothing.
FIFA extends Lebanon ban
FIFA yesterday enforced a worldwide extension on bans handed down to individuals embroiled in match-fixing in Lebanon.
World football’s governing body imposed the sanctions on 23 players and one official already subject to bans handed down by the Lebanese FA following an investigation of games at both international and domestic level.
Twenty of the players received one-year bans from all football-related activities while three individuals received two-year, three-year and lifetime bans respectively.
Emanuelson to return at Milan
Fulham have no plans to sign Urby Emanuelson on a perma-nent basis after his loan spell from Milan expires at the end of the season.
The 26-year-old Dutch midfielder arrived at Craven Cottage in January and made seven appearances. However, it seems that the London club are reluctant to part with the player next month.
“You could see that Urby is a nice, technical crowd-pleaser,” manager Martin Jol told Sky Sports.
“But there is not an option on him, because it would be im-possible to buy him.”
Handanovic not joining Barcelona
The agent of Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic brushed off speculation of a €30 million offer from Barcelona and reiterated that his client is happy at the San Siro.
Corriere dello Sport and Sky Sport Italia yesterday reported that the Spanish giants were preparing a bid for the Slovenian goalkeeper as they look to replace the departing Victor Valdes.
“We’ve never had any contact with Barcelona,” Handanovic’s representative Claudia Pastorello said.
“Samir is happy to be at Inter.”
Strachan wants full-time league
Scotland manager Gordon Strachan says it is time the league reconstruction debate was focused purely on the nation’s full-time clubs.
A joint SPL and Scottish Foot-ball League plan to implement a 12-12-18 set-up crumbled last week when the top-flight teams failed to get the required 11-1 majority in favour.
“If you are full-time, make a league for full-time clubs. That includes anyone who wants to be full-time, anyone who wants to bring in money and sponsors. They should be looked after first,” he said.
“If you are full-time you are putting money, jobs and necks on the line. Part-time, you are not really doing that. So let’s make a full-time league.”
Cesar faces probe
QPR goalkeeper Julio Cesar could have landed himself in hot water with the club after a photograph appeared online with the Brazil international wearing a replica Chelsea shirt.
Cesar, 33, joined QPR from Inter last summer but has been unable to prevent Harry Red-knapp’s side from slipping to the edge of Premier League rele-gation.
Cesar was pictured wearing the home shirt of QPR’s London rivals Chelsea as he posed with countryman David Luiz at a birthday party for the Blues defender.
The image was quickly cir-culated on social media plat-forms, with QPR head of communications Ian Taylor writing later on Twitter: “The club is aware of an image of Julio Cesar circulating on social networking feeds. The club will be dealing with this issue internally.”