SPORTS DIRECT AND TO THE POINT

26 SPORT WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 2016
SPORT
FOOTBALL
Vardy poised to
decide future
after Euro 2016
ROSS MCLEAN
@rossmcleanRMAC
STRIKER Jamie Vardy looks set to
adhere to the wishes of England
manager Roy Hodgson and postpone
any decision over his domestic future
until after the European
Championship.
Arsenal triggered a £20m release
clause in Vardy’s contract on Friday
while the 29-year-old was expected to
decide whether to join the Gunners
or stay with Premier League
champions Leicester City before
flying to France on Monday.
No decision was forthcoming and
Vardy, who netted 24 top-flight goals
last term, now appears ready to put
any such debate on his future onto
the back-burner until England’s
involvement at the tournament has
ended.
Hodgson, who allowed Vardy to
miss England’s friendly with
Australia at the Stadium of Light for
his wedding, has spoken of his desire
for transfer speculation to be left at
Leicester striker Vardy has been the
subject of a transfer bid from Arsenal
FOOTBALL
JOE HALL
@joehallwords
FORMER Chelsea first-team doctor Eva
Carneiro achieved victory in her longrunning
legal battle with the club and its
former manager Jose Mourinho yesterday
when she received a seven-figure
payout and an apology.
Carneiro reached a settlement with
Chelsea over a claim for constructive
dismissal and agreed to drop a separate
claim against Mourinho for sex discrimination
shortly before she was due to
give evidence to the tribunal in Croydon.
Details have been kept confidential but
experts said the Premier League club
would likely have had to fork out over
£1.2m — the value of a previous settlement
offer rejected by Carneiro.
Chelsea apologised “unreservedly” to
their former employee and agreed that
she had been in the right in the August
2015 incident at the centre of the employment
tribunal.
Carneiro claimed that Mourinho had
called her “daughter of a whore” in Portuguese
when she treated Blues star
Eden Hazard during the opening match
of last season.
“I am relieved that today we have been
able to conclude this tribunal case,”
Carneiro said in a statement.
“It has been an extremely difficult and
distressing time for me and my family
and I now look forward to moving forward
with my life.”
Former Chelsea boss Mourinho, who
was last month appointed manager of
Manchester United, thanked the 42-
year-old doctor but did not go on record
with an apology. Chelsea acknowledged
DOUBLE TROUBLE British duo Laura
Robson and Heather Watson suffered
Nottingham Open first round defeats
the “distress caused” by the affair. The
Gibraltar-born doctor was dropped from
first team duties by Mourinho against
her wishes after treating Hazard and
subsequently left the club.
“We wish to place on record that in
running onto the pitch Dr Carneiro was
following both the rules of the game and
fulfilling her responsibility to the players
as a doctor, putting their safety first,” the
club said in a statement.
“Dr Carneiro has always put the interests
of the club's players first. Dr
Carneiro is a highly competent and professional
sports doctor. She was a valued
member of the club’s medical team
and we wish her every success in her future
career. Jose Mourinho also thanks
Dr Carneiro for the excellent and dedicated
support she provided as First
Team Doctor and he wishes her a successful
career.”
Legal experts said the settlement had
avoided further potential embarrassment
for Chelsea and Mourinho.
“Had it proceeded to a full hearing,
Mourinho and the club would have been
asked some very difficult questions
about their treatment of Dr Carneiro,”
said Glenn Hayes of Irwin Mitchell.
“It is very unlikely that the case settled
for less than £1.2m given that amount
had already been put on the table and
the total amount is likely to exceed the
maximum award that the tribunal might
have made had she been successful with
all of her claims.”
PwC partner Ed Stacey said that Dr
Carneiro’s claim served as “a reminder
professional football clubs are not in a
league of their own when it comes to
employment law”.
CITYAM.COM
Carneiro 1, Chelsea 0
Former Blues doctor agrees sevenfigure
settlement and full apology
home and for players to fully focus
on Euro 2016 while in France.
As England prepare for their
Group B opener against Russia in
Marseille on Saturday, Liverpool
marksman Daniel Sturridge insists
he has seen nothing from former
non-league hitman Vardy to suggest
he has become distracted by the saga
involving his future.
“That is what everyone is here to
do, concentrate on England and not
focus on the speculation outside of
that,” said Sturridge.
“It is about going there with the
right mentality and the right frame
of mind, and Jamie’s exactly that
way. He is not worrying about
anything other than England.”
With an average age of 25 the
Three Lions have the youngest squad
at the tournament. It is also the
youngest group England have ever
taken to a European Championship,
but Sturridge insists England’s
relative inexperience is something to
embrace rather than fear.
“I don’t think age has anything to
do with it. I think it is more so how
you play as a team and gel as a
team,” added Sturridge.
“Look at Manchester United and
other club sides that have had young
squads and had a gelling period and
been successful and I believe we can
do that. This is a young squad. That
is a strength not a weakness.”
FOOTBALL
Everton close in on Koeman as
£5m package agreed with Saints
ROSS MCLEAN
@rossmcleanRMAC
EVERTON moved a step closer to
appointing Ronald Koeman as their
new manager after agreeing a £5m
compensation package with fellow
Premier League outfit
Southampton yesterday.
The deal paves the way
for Koeman, who has 12
months remaining on this
contract, to call time on his
two-year stay on the south
coast and succeed
Roberto Martinez, who
was sacked as Everton
boss last month
following a season of
struggle.
Former Holland
international Koeman,
headhunted by new Everton
majority shareholder Farhad
Moshiri, is now expected to sign a
deal believed to be worth in the
region of £6m a year.
The 53-year-old is set to take his
brother and Southampton’s assistant
manager Erwin Koeman,
along with fitness coach Jan
Kluitenberg, to Goodison
Park with him.
Koeman assumed the
Southampton reins from
now Tottenham
manager Mauricio
Pochettino and
guided the Saints
to seventh and
sixth-placed
Koeman guided Saints
to Europa League
finishes, which represented their
best Premier League campaigns.
Southampton will play Europa
League football next season after
sealing qualification by winning 12
of the final 18 matches last term,
which has left former Saints and
England forward Matthew Le Tissier
querying the foresight of Koeman’s
prospective move.
“He may feel he has got a better
chance of winning trophies at
Everton. I’d be of a slightly different
opinion,” said Le Tissier. “I
understand they’ve got a new owner
and want to splash a bit of cash, but
it might not be as easy a job as he
thinks.
“Most clubs in the Premier League
are pretty wealthy now and can
compete in the transfer market. We
just have to move on and look to the
next man to take us forward again.”
IN BRIEF
UNITED SET TO POUNCE
AND SEAL BAILLY DEAL
£ FOOTBALL: Villarreal centre-half
Eric Bailly is set to become Jose
Mourinho’s first signing as
Manchester United boss with the
Old Trafford club shelling out a fee
in the region of £30m. The 22-yearold,
who has also played for
Espanyol, joined Villarreal for £4.4m
in January 2015 and played 35
matches for the Spanish outfit,
which boasted one of the meanest
defences in La Liga last season.
Bailly also played every match as
Ivory Coast won last year’s Africa
Cup of Nations.
WOODS RULES HIMSELF
OUT OF US OPEN RETURN
£ GOLF: Former world No1 Tiger
Woods has confirmed he will miss
next week’s US Open at Oakmont as
he continues his recovery from
injury. Woods has not played
competitively since the Wyndham
Championship in August 2015,
following which he underwent two
back operations in the space of six
weeks. Woods said: “While I
continue to work hard on getting
healthy, I am not physically ready to
play in this year’s US Open.”