Fulham sack manager Kit Symons

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

Fulham have said they will commence a search for a replacement immediately but no caretaker manager was announced. Alan Curbishley is currently at the club in an advisory role and often joined Symons in the dugout at Craven Cottage, so he may take charge in the interim. Tim Sherwood, Nigel Pearson and Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink, the latter having taken Burton Albion to the top of League One before being overtaken by Walsall, are among the early favourites for the job.

Whoever replaces Symons will be the fifth Fulham manager of Shahid Khan’s tenure, after he bought the club from Mohamed Al Fayed in 2013. Martin Jol was dismissed after a few months and René Meulensteen lasted only 17 games before the disastrous tenure of Felix Magath.

The German manager led Fulham down to the Championship before he was dismissed with the club bottom of the division, having taken only one point from their opening seven games of last season.

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

Cristiano Ronaldo said Friday that he wants to end his career “with dignity” and not playing in “the United States, Qatar or Dubai”. The Real Madrid and Portugal star, the subject of a new documentary that premiered on Monday in London, said Thursday in an interview on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show that he expected to play six or seven more seasons and hoped to finish his career at the highest level. The remarks ostensibly referenced the recent wave of top players who have finished their careers outside of Europe’s top leagues, among them MLS imports Didier Drogba, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa, along with Xavi, the lifelong Barcelona midfielder who signed with Qatari club Al Sadd in May. “That does not mean it’s bad play in the leagues of the United States, Qatar or Dubai, but I do not see myself there,” Ronaldo said. Ronaldo, who turns 31 in February, became Real Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer last month and has th...

Falkirk chairman calls for restructure of ‘outdated’ Scottish league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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