Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1005614
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 JULY 2018 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS Dutch international Da- ley Blind has completed a return to Ajax Amsterdam from Manchester United on a four-year contract, the clubs said yesterday. Ajax confirmed they struck a deal for an initial 16 million euros (14.15 million pounds), which could rise up to 20.5 million euros with perfor- mance-based add-ons. "To play for the biggest club in the world with such a his- tory meant a lot to me," Blind, capped 54 times by the Neth- erlands, wrote on Twitter. "I want to thank everyone, the managers, coaches, the medical department, every- one who helped me to settle in so quick at the beginning, of course my team mates and last but definitely not least the fans." The 28-year-old, who came through the Ajax academy and played over 100 senior matches for the club, arrived at United in 2014 but was not a first-team regular under manager Jose Mourinho. Able to play in midfield or defence, Blind won the FA Cup with United in 2016, and the League Cup and Europa League titles in the follow- ing year. Blind made 90 Premier League appearances in four years at Old Trafford but was limited to only seven last sea- son. Blind returns to Ajax after four years at Man United Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho as Daley Blind waits to be substituted A combination picture shows four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, (left to right) Pyotr Verzilov, Veronika Nikulshina, Olga Pakhtusova and Olga Kurachyova, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, at a court building in Moscow, Russia Pussy Riot World Cup pitch intruders jailed for 15 days A Moscow court on Monday handed down 15-day jail sen- tences on four members of the Pussy Riot protest group who interrupted Sunday's World Cup final between France and Croatia when they ran onto the pitch wearing fake police uni- forms. The pitch invasion by mem- bers of the punk band early in the second half of the final was a brazen act in Moscow's Lu- zhniki stadium in front of Rus- sian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking offi- cials from around the world. The judge also banned the four from attending sports events for three years. The four were Veronika Ni- kulshina, Olga Pakhtusova, Olga Kurachyova and Pyotr Verzilov, the only male. Kurachyova said their stunt, which held up the game only briefly, was meant to promote freedom of speech and con- demn policies of FIFA, soccer's global governing body. "It is a pity that we disrupted the sportsmen," Kurachyova told reporters on Monday. "FIFA is involved in unfair games unfortunately. FIFA is a friend of heads of states who carry out repression, who vio- late human rights." Verzilov said the perfor- mance was also meant to show how "the state, in the form of the police, intrudes into peo- ple's lives". Three of Pussy Riot's origi- nal members were jailed in 2012 for staging a protest against Putin in a church and the group has since become a symbol of anti-Kremlin direct action. Croatian defender Dejan Lovren, who pushed the male intruder aside on the pitch, told reporters the incident had interrupted the game at an im- portant moment for his team. The match, which France won 4-2, was watched from the stands by Putin and the French and Croatian presidents.