Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany withdraws from Belgium squad

Manchester City’s captain, Vincent Kompany , has withdrawn from the Belgium squad for their friendlies against Italy and Spain .

The 29-year-old, who was not involved in full training with his country on Tuesday or Wednesday, was the subject of a club-versus-country row during the previous international break when he played in a Euro 2016 qualifier against Israel despite assertions from City’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini , that he was unfit because of a calf injury .

There will no repeat of those arguments this month, though, after Belgium confirmed he had left the squad and been replaced by the Anderlecht midfielder Steven Defour .

A tweet from the team’s account read : “ . @vincentkompany left the squad , out for Italy and Spain . @StevenDefour joined the group at noon . ”

In October Kompany was named in the Belgium squad despite missing five successive fixtures for his club side because of injury, and Pellegrini had declared he was not fit enough to feature in the games against Andorra or Israel.

However, despite missing out against Andorra when his international colleagues booked their Euro 2016 qualification, Belgium boss Marc Wilmots started Kompany in the fixture against Israel to provoke Pellegrini’s ire .

“I was not pleased because we sent Vincent with some medical report that he was not able to play but, as the manager of Belgium said, he can do what he wants in the international break,” the Chilean stated when Kompany returned for club duty. “He can use the players and he wanted to use him .

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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