Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/619227
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL 20 Sport 'Manuel Pellegrini undermined by Pep Guardiola speculation' Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills believes Manuel Pellegrini is being "undermined" by speculation he will make way for Pep Guardiola IT was revealed on Sunday that the Spaniard would be departing Bayern Munich this summer af- ter three years with the German giants, and a number of English clubs are expected to covet the services of the former Barcelona boss when he leaves. City are thought to be at the front of the queue when it comes to landing Guardiola because di- rector of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano are at the Etihad Stadium, having previously held posts in Catalonia. Pellegrini only signed a new deal with the club in August, but that contract expires in the summer of 2017 and the fact Guardiola is available next summer has only heightened the belief the current incumbent is on borrowed time. City were beaten 2-1 at Arse- nal on Monday and trail leaders Leicester by six points. Former City defender Dan- nyMills, who spent five years with City during the previous decade, insists the link to Guardiola is making Pellegrini's job more dif- ficult and has called on his old employers to clarify where the 62- year-old stands. "The Pep situation is an interest- ing one," he told talkSPORT. "I almost think the club has to come out and make some sort of statement or at least tell Pellegrini the situation. "Speculation was rife at the start of the season and Pellegrini has always been under pressure, and now we know that Pep is definitely available. "The rumours are that, with the ex-Barcelona guys at Manchester City, he will be coming in at the end of the season, but they are only rumours at the moment. "Manuel Pellegrini must feel a little undermined. "The players will be thinking that the manager might not be with them for much longer, and sometimes that can just drop five per cent off your performance. "That's not what City need at the moment." Speaking before it was con- firmed Guardiola would leave Bayern, Pellegrini last week said that there was no extra pressure on him amid the suggestion he was merely keeping the seat warm until the end of the campaign. "I think Pep is one of the best coaches in the world so if he doesn't continue at Bayern maybe a lot of teams can try to have him manage their team," the Chilean said. "In my case, I don't have any pressure about that. Maybe there are a lot of rumours - not only this season but going back to the other seasons - but the only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself to win. "When you have experience and manage so many big clubs, you know with every result that is not the result the club wants the media will start with different rumours about different things, but if you are worried about that it's impos- sible to work in a big team." Manuel Pellegrini (left) could be replaced by Pep Guardiola (right) French minister questions ban on would-be FIFA chief Platini FRANCE'S sports minister pub- licly questioned the legitimacy of FIFA's ethics committee af- ter it imposed an eight-year ban that seriously endangers fellow- Frenchman Michel Platini's pros- pects of becoming the next head of the world football body. Patrick Kanner said he still backed Platini, head of the pow- erful European football body UEFA, and questioned whether he had been given a fair hearing by a committee he said was close to the old guard of the FIFA world football body. FIFA President Sepp Blatter and would-be successor Platini were both banned from the sport for eight years on Monday for eth- ics violations. Both are under scrutiny over a 2011 payment of 2 million Swiss francs (£1.3 mil- lion) made to Platini with Blatter's approval, for work done 10 years earlier. "We know very well that FIFA's ethics committee has been very close to the former managers, no- tably Sepp Blatter ... who is perhaps dragging down with him the man he expected to be his successor but who was not always the man he wanted to see take his place," Kanner told Europe 1 radio. "I regret this because Michel Platini is in a sense being hound- ed. Was he able to defend himself under fair conditions? I'm not convinced." Platini has vowed to fight the eight-year ban in the world sports tribunal and even civil proceed- ings to claim damages over a de- cision that he has denounced as a "masquerade". FIFA said on Monday it "ac- knowledges the decisions of the independent Ethics Committee and has no further comment". The committee operates inde- pendently of FIFA; its members are appointed by the FIFA Con- gress and cannot be members of any standing committees. For Blatter, the ban brings 17 years at the helm of world foot- ball, already tarnished by contro- versies over the awarding of sev- eral World Cup tournaments and a host of corruption cases against senior football officials, to an end in disgrace. For Platini, it appears to have killed his chances of being picked to replace the 79-year-old Swiss at a FIFA Congress in February. Football officials in France, which will host the UEFA Euro- pean finals in June, have defended Platini. On Monday the French Football Federation (FFF) main- tained its support, with FFF presi- dent Noel Le Graet saying that he had been saddened and shocked by the former France midfielder's suspension. Michel Platini