Fulham sack manager Kit Symons

Kit Symons has been sacked as manager of Fulham. The 44-year-old has left his post after an inconsistent start to the Championship season which sees the Cottagers in 12th place after Saturday’s 5-2 home loss to Birmingham.

The Fulham owner, Shahid Khan, has aspirations to return the club to the Premier League. “No one can ever doubt the effort and commitment that Kit put into Fulham , not only as first-team manager, but also as a player here, and as a key figure in the success of our academy,” he told the club’s website. “Kit came through for us last year at this time and helped stabilise our club on and off the pitch, and we’re very grateful for that and his many other contributions over the years.

“It is now time to take Fulham to the higher level of success that we expect from our first-team manager and our players, and our supporters here in London and throughout the world deserve.”

Symons took over as caretaker manager in September 2014 following the dismissal of Felix Magath and took on the role permanently in late October. Their season has been an inconsistent one this time around, and the west London club are eight points of the play-off places.

Cristiano Ronaldo: I want to retire with 'dignity', not in USA, Qatar or Dubai

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Falkirk chairman calls for restructure of ‘outdated’ Scottish league

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Young people to lose access to unemployment benefits as part of welfare reforms

YOUNG people will not be able to get unemployment benefits until they turn 25 under reforms introduced by the Turnbull Government today. The coalition has unveiled wide-ranging welfare reforms in parliament today, including changes to the Newstart program. It hopes to stop people aged 22 to 24 getting Newstart or the Sickness allowance, and they will instead be shifted to the Youth Allowance payment. This will reduce the amount of money that they will be able to get, costing a single person living away from home about $90 a fortnight. They will also be required to study in order to qualify for the payments. “The key aim of this measure is to provide incentives for young unemployed people to obtain the relevant education and training to increase employability,” according to an explanatory memorandum for the bill. However, it says Youth Allowance does allow students to earn a higher amount of money from part-time or casual work than Newstart, before this begins imp...

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