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maltatoday, Wednesday, 17 February 2016 20 Sport SPORTTODAY football Nicky Butt appointed Manchester United head of academy Manchester United have named former midfielder nicky Butt as their new head of acad- emy. the 41-year-old, who had a dec- orated playing career at Old traf- ford over a 12-year period, has earned the position after working as reserve team and under-19s coach for the last four years. Butt was a product of United's youth system himself and is look- ing forward to helping create the next generation of stars. "It's a privilege to take on this role," Butt told the club's official website. "as someone who learned his trade in the United youth set- up, it's a huge honour now to be given the chance to lead the acad- emy and to instil its values and attitudes to continue to create future generations of Manchester United players. "It's a big challenge but I am for- tunate to be taking over a dedi- cated, first-class team. Our aim remains the same - to keep sup- plying the first team with well- coached, rounded players that understand the responsibility of playing for the biggest club in the world." United have restructured their set-up following the exit of direc- tor of youth academy Brian Mc- clair last June and Butt's appoint- ment comes after Paul McGuiness left his role as under-18s coach af- ter 24 years in the role last week. fIfa hears blatter appeal against eight-year ban Banned FIFa president sepp Blatter was at the headquarters of football's governing body on tues- day for a hearing to appeal against his eight-year suspension from the sport. Blatter, 79, was banned in decem- ber along with european football boss Michel Platini over a payment of 2 million swiss francs ($2 mil- lion) made to the Frenchman in 2011 by FIFa with Blatter's approv- al for work done a decade earlier. FIFa's ethics committee, which imposed the bans on Blatter and Platini, said the payment, made at a time when the former was seeking re-election, lacked transparency and presented conflicts of interest. Both men denied wrongdoing. the case is now being heard by FIFa's appeal committee. sources close to FIFa said that Blatter had arrived 7.30 am local time, evading cameramen and pho- tographers who had expected him to arrive later. Blatter's adviser thomas renggli told reuters he expected to get the verdict later this week. football's world ruling body is engulfed by a graft scandal that has led to the indictment of several dozen leading football officials in the United states. Platini's appeal was heard on Monday. Sepp Blatter Nicky Butt Arsenal defeat will not stall Leicester's season, says Morgan skIPPer Wes Morgan is con- fident that Leicester city will leave behind their dispiriting defeat by arsenal and get their Premier League title challenge back on track. arsenal 's danny Welbeck scored a last-gasp winner at the emirates stadium on sunday night to condemn Leicester to just their third league defeat of the season and Morgan stressed that the players would bounce back quickly. "It's a disappointing result. to concede with the last kick of the game like that and to come away with nothing is hard to take," the defender told the club's website (w w w.lcfc.co.uk). "We're the type of team to fight for each other, have each other's backs and do what's necessary to try to help each other out. "We'll dust ourselves off and bounce back against norwich in our next game." the defeat was not enough to knock Leicester off the top of the table, although it did cut their lead to two points. Manager claudio ranieri gave the players a week off to recharge their batteries before their next game against nor- wich city on Feb. 27. "We'll have a little rest and take our minds off the game," Morgan added. "It's been a tough last three games so we'll have some time off from football, and come back with a fresh mind raring to go. We'll be back on it."