Former Inter boss Mancini slams Gullit

Former Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini  has slammed ‘envious’ Ruud Gullit after the Dutch great suggested the Italian had failed to prepare the club’s players for the start of the season. Mancini was replaced by Frank De Boer, Gullit’s former teammate in the Dutch national side, when he was sacked by the Italian giants on the cusp of the Serie A season.Inter invested heavily in players during the summer but have made a terrible start under De Boer, losing away to Chievo in their league opener and then being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Palermo. Gullit suggested Mancini was to blame, the former AC Milan and Chelsea star claiming the respected Italian had failed to physically prepare Inter for the new season because “he was already thinking of leaving”.Mancini, it appears, has taken the accusation badly.He suggested Gullit was envious because of his own failure to follow his impressive playing career with a coaching career to match. “Gullit was fortunate to have had a great playing career. Full stop,” Mancini said in comments to Radio Incontro Olympia.“In football, when you’ve been a great player and then you don’t succeed in anything else it’s sometimes difficult to accept. These kind of people like to speak about other players and coaches. If he’s a friend of (Frank) De Boer, that’s fine. But that doesn’t give him the right to make these comments. But Gullit’s not the only one, there are lots like him. Envy is a terrible thing.”Mancini won seven trophies including three consecutive league titles with Inter in a previous spell in charge at the club. The 51-year-old also ended Manchester City’s 44-year wait to be crowned league champions when he steered them to the Premier League title in 2012.Although Gullit led Chelsea to their first major trophy in 26 years with the FA Cup in 1997, he was controversially sacked by the club soon after. He then had unsuccessful spells at Newcastle United, Feyenoord, LA Galaxy and Terek Grozny. In the Russian Premier League Gullit won three games out of 13 and after he was sacked the club criticised his “party lifestyle”.Eriksen signs new Tottenham contractTottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen has signed a four-year contract extension, the Premier League club announced yesterday. Eriksen had been in negotiations with Tottenham since early last season and those talks have finally yielded an extended deal worth a reported £75,000 per week ($100,000, 90,000euros).The 24-year-old had been linked with Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus while the discussions dragged on. But Denmark international Eriksen, signed from Dutch club Ajax in August 2013, admitted he was relieved to have committed his future to the north London team.Eriksen has made more than 130 appearances for Tottenham and he is confident Mauricio Pochettino’s squad will challenge for the Premier League title after narrowly missing out to Leicester City last term.Juventus fail in multimillion appeal over title lossA Rome court yesterday rejected a 444-million-euro lawsuit by Italian champions Juventus over damages suffered by the loss of their 2006 Serie A title and consequent demotion to Serie B.Juventus were handed the sanctions following their role in the “Calciopoli” match-fixing affair which rocked the world of football in the weeks leading up to the 2006 World Cup, won by Italy.Although one of five clubs involved in the scandal, Juventus were handed the stiffest punishment after police wiretaps caught Juventus official Luciano Moggi influencing the selection of supposedly partial match referees. Juventus, then coached by Fabio Capello, were stripped of the 2005 and 2006 league titles and demoted to Italy’s second division. Italian media reports did not say why the club only appealed its 2006 title loss.Juventus, detailing loss of income and damage to the club’s reputation, cited the Italian Football Now the holder of 32 official Serie A titles, Juventus maintain that all the titles were won fairly and squarely. At Juventus Stadium, for example, a massive ‘34’ greets fans at the main entrance.Infantino says 40-team World Cup not a certaintyFIFA president Gianni Infantino is not yet certain that the 2026 World Cup finals would feature 40 teams even though he personally favours an expanded tournament, he said yesterday.Infantino also said he would be happy for several countries to share the hosting of the World Cup, describing it as much a “social event for the whole world” as a global sporting competition. Infantino made a 40-team World Cup a key part of his campaign before his election in February but admitted it was not entirely up to him to decide whether the 2026 finals should be increased from the tournament’s current 32-team format.“My opinion has not changed on the 40 teams, but that’s my opinion. We will have to discuss it and see what’s the best for football,” he said. FIFA expects to make decisions by October on the number of teams, the format for the tournament and the continents that will be eligible to stage the tournament.The latter would be a key decision as it would determine whether countries from Asia, where Qatar is staging the 2022 World Cup, can bid to be hosts. The final decision on the host nation will be made in May 2020. “For the moment, everything is open, but there is a question of who can and cannot bid...we will see,” Infantino said.