Sevilla name Montella to replace axed cancer-stricken Berizzo

Sevilla yesterday said they had reached an agreement in principle with experienced Italian coach Vincenzo Montella to replace Eduardo Berizzo who was sacked just a month after it was announced he was suffering from prostate cancer.Montella was sacked by AC Milan in November after just 17 months in charge with the Italian giants marooned in mid-table. “Sevilla and Italian coach Vincenzo Montella have reached an agreement in principle so that he will become coach of the Sevilla first team until June 2019,” the La Liga club announced on its website.“The deal will be completed once Montella’s lawyers have reached an agreement with AC Milan for the terms of departure of the coach from the Rossoneri. Once his departure is finalised, Montella will travel to Seville on Friday night to sign his contract with the club. He will lead the team in training on Saturday morning before being formally presented.”The 43-year-old former Italian international striker has also coached Roma, Catania, Fiorentina and Sampdoria. He joins a Sevilla side who are fifth in La Liga 16 points behind leaders Barcelona. They also face Manchester United in the Champions League last 16 next year.Berizzo underwent cancer surgery last month. Sevilla aren’t in action again until they face Cadiz in the first leg of their Copa del Rey last 16 tie on January 3.‘Crown prince’ Ten Hag takes charge at AjaxErik ten Hag, dubbed the “crown prince” of Dutch football, was named as the new coach of Ajax Amsterdam on Thursday following the sacking of Marcel Keizer, the iconic club announced. “Ajax and Utrecht (Ten Hag’s current club) have reached an agreement concerning the transfer of Erik ten Hag to Ajax,” said a statement. “Ten Hag will sign a contract for two and a half years and will start on January 1.”Ten Hag, 47, manager at Utrecht since May 2015, is seen as “the crown prince of the Dutch football manager fraternity,” popular daily tabloid De Telegraaf said when revealing the deal last week.Keizer only took charge at Ajax last June after the departure of Peter Bosz for Borussia Dortmund. He was coach for just 174 days and presided over a string of disappointing losses by the Dutch giants.Not only did they fail to qualify from the preliminary rounds of either the Champions League or the Europa League but also crashed out of the Dutch Cup last week, losing on penalties to FC Twente following a 1-1 draw.Ajax are currently second in the Dutch league, five points behind PSV Eindhoven. Assistant coach Dennis Bergkamp was also axed. Ten Hag played as a midfielder for Ajax between 1989 and 2002 and was voted coach of the year in 2016. He has also worked as assistant coach at Bayern Munich.Four Rio Ave players charged with match fixing: reportsFour players with Portuguese top-flight club Rio Ave have been reportedly charged in a 500,000 euro ($597,000) match-fixing scam, local media revealed yesterday The public prosecutor could not confirm the case which first surfaced on SIC television station and confirmed by the Correio da Manha newspaper.According to the two media outlets the four unnamed players are suspected of taking bribes to fix a defeat for their team in a first division game against Feirense on February 6, 2017. Rio Ave lost the match 2-1 on the way to finishing seventh in the end-of-season table.Betting on the fixture had been suspended shortly before kick-off due to “the unusual volume of bets” placed on the encounter, Jogos Santa Casa, the monitoring body supervising betting in Portugal explained. The total amount of bets placed on the game was in the region of half a million euros, media reported.The club from Porto reacted “with surprise and indignation” at the news, stressing they had “no information” on any charges resulting from a fraud investigation. After the suspension of betting on the game the police opened an inquiry “six months ago in which people connected to Rio Ave gave all the cooperation required of them”, the club said in a statement.The Portuguese League has reiterated “its total confidence” in all the teams engaged in the competitions it organises, and in particular in Rio Ave.Uganda name Frenchman Desabre as new coachUganda appointed Frenchman Sebastian Desabre as their new coach on a two-year deal to replace Milutin Sredojevic who resigned in July. The 41-year-old Desabre, who has been coaching Egyptian league club Ismailia, was one of four names on a shortlist released by the Uganda Football Federation (FUFA) early this month to take over the vacant post.The other candidates in the list formulated by a selection panel headed by Zambian football legend Kalusha Bwalya were Moses Basena, who has been serving as the team’s interim coach, Belgian Emilio Ferrera and Johnny McKinstry from Northern Ireland.Desabre, who has vast knowledge in African club football, but has never coached a national team, is due to start his new role when he leads Uganda to the fifth African Nations Championships (CHAN) finals starting in Morocco on January 12. Uganda are drawn in Pool B alongside Zambia, Ivory Coast and Namibia.