the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 65
Sport
tions about Mané’s involvement in the
rest of the competition. Liverpool have
contact with Mané and Senegal after
matches and will expect further infor-
mation on his condition. Mané could be
ruled out of Senegal’s quarter-final
game on Sunday if a concussion is con-
firmed but there is also no mandatory
recovery period for players.
The goalkeeper was one of two Cape
Verde players sent off in Senegal’s 2-0
win, in which Bamba Dieng also scored.Everton ready to
gamble on Pereira
Vítor Pereira has emerged as Farhad
Moshiri’s preferred choice to become
the next Everton manager and lead the
fight against relegation. The Portuguese
impressed during an interview with the
club’s owner and is now the leading
contender to replace Rafa Benítez.
Pereira, 53, would represent a gamble
for Everton, who have slipped towards
the drop zone after ten defeats in their
past 13 Premier League matches, but
Moshiri showed with the appointment
of Benítez that he is not against making
bold decisions. Reports in Portugal
have suggested that there have been
discussions on the inclusion of a break
clause in his contract that could be
triggered at the end of the season.
Everton had wanted to bring Roberto
Martínez back to the club, nearly six
years after his sacking. However, a plan
for him to job share with his position as
the Belgium national team coach in the
countdown to the World Cup was
blocked by the Belgian FA.
Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea
head coach, and Wayne Rooney, who is
in charge at Derby County, have also
been discussed.
Pereira was sacked by Fenerbahce
last month and has twice previously
been interviewed by Everton, in 2013
and 2019.
Everton had placed Duncan Fergus-
on in charge for three games after
Benítez’s dismissal, but last weekend’s
1-0 defeat to Aston Villa has seemingly
resulted in a change of tack by Moshiri.A new manager is now expected to be in
the dugout for the FA Cup tie with
Brentford a week on Saturday.
The managerial search comes with
Everton supporters stepping up their
calls for change at the troubled club
following a sit-in after the Villa
game. Another protest took place last
night outside the Royal Liver Building,
which became Everton’s work head-
quarters after Moshiri bought the
premises in 2017.
Banners proclaiming “Board of
Failure” and “Moshiri: If You Want
Success Then Change This Mess” were
displayed by a small group of support-
ers as part of a protest organised by the
27 Years Campaign. The “27” refers to
the number of years since Everton last
won a major trophy, the FA Cup in 1995.
Everton are building a new ground
and have spent more than £500 million
since Moshiri bought the club in 2016.
The end goal of the protests is not for
Moshiri to sell, but for him to change
and engage.
“There is a great deal of respect for
his financial commitment,” a spokes-
person for the campaign said. “But it
comes back to how you use the money,
and it has been a complete waste of an
opportunity and resources.
“If he is making recruitment
decisions on our behalf, then you have
to compare those to Liverpool, Man-
chester United, City, Chelsea and even
Brighton because that is what gets Ever-
ton into a competitive position. Without
changing the way the club is run, there
can be no change in performance.”Head clash forces Mané off
Liverpool’s Sadio Mané was forced off
with a head injury during Senegal’s
Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) win over
Cape Verde, having initially been al-
lowed to play on. He collided with the
opposing goalkeeper, who was sent off.
Mané carried on playing for about
five minutes after the clash with Josi-
mar Dias, which happened in the 57th
minute of the game, and even scored
Senegal’s first goal. However, he asked
to come off after scoring and had a visi-
bly swollen cheek, raising questions
over whether the correct guidance on
head injuries was followed.
The goalkeeper and Mané collided as
they chased a long pass and Dias was
sent off after a VAR review. Mané
promptly scored with a superbly placed
shot into the roof of the net, before
slumping to the ground and being sub-
stituted. He later posted a picture of
himself on Instagram smiling from a
hospital bed.
Concussion substitutes are being
trialled in some leagues but are not
available to teams at Afcon. The scenes
will alarm Liverpool and raise ques-‘Shut gate caused killer crush’
The President of the Confederation of
African Football has said an “inexplica-
ble” decision to keep an entry gate
closed was responsible for the crush
that killed eight people at an Africa Cup
of Nations match on Monday.
Eight people died, including one
child, and 38 were injured as fans at-
tempted to enter the Olembe Stadium
in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé,
where the hosts were playing Comoros.
“That gate was supposed to be open
because if it was open they would have
walked through, and for inexplicable
reasons it was closed,” Patrice Motsepesaid. “If that gate was open as it was sup-
posed to [be], we wouldn’t have had this
problem, this loss of life. Who closed
that gate? Who is responsible?”
The communications minister René
Emmanuel Sadi said that of 38 people
injured, seven were seriously hurt.
A baby was reportedly one of those
trampled by the crowd and was in a
“medically stable” condition, the health
ministry added.
Motsepe called for a probe after
Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, or-
dered an investigation “so that all light
is shed on this tragic incident”.Paul JoyceI think sacking
Rafael Benítez
has given them
a chance, but
clearly it is
important they
make a good
decision on
who takes over.
With Benítez I
thought they
would go down
but I was
involved in a
few relegation
battles and
changing the
manager often
triggers an
improvement.For the first
time under
Sean Dyche this
just doesn’t feel
like a proper
Burnley team.
Yes, they have
games in hand,
but they have
to win those
matches. In the
past they have
relied on a
strong duo up
front but that
has not been
there, partly
because of
injury to Ashley
Barnes.
They have
made a big step
forward with
two wins in two
games but they
have some very
tricky matches
coming up
against in-form
teams and I
fear they could
be cut adrift in
the next month
or so. It sounds
harsh but I do
think their
players are one
of the three
weakest groups
in the league.Premier League standings
P WD LFA GDPts
Man City............23 18 3 2 55 14 41 57
Liverpool...........22 14 6 2 58 19 39 48
Chelsea..............24 13 8 3 48 18 30 47
Man United.......22 11 5 6 36 30 6 38
West Ham..........23 11 4 8 41 31 10 37
Arsenal...............21 11 3 7 33 25 8 36
Spurs..................20 11 3 6 26 24 2 36
Wolves................21 10 4 7 19 16 3 34
Brighton............ 22 6 124 23 23 0 30
Leicester........... 20 7 5 8 34 37 -3 26
Aston Villa......... 21 8 2 11 28 32 -4 26
Southampton.. 22 5 10 7 26 34 -8 25
C Palace............. 22 5 9 8 31 34 -3 24
Brentford........... 23 6 5 12 26 38 -12 23
Leeds................... 21 5 7 9 24 40 -16 22
Everton.............. 20 5 4 11 24 35 -11 19
Norwich............. 22 4 4 14 13 45 -32 16
Newcastle.......... 21 2 9 10 21 43 -22 15
Watford............. 20 4 2 14 23 40 -17 14
Burnley............... 18 1 9 8 16 27 -11 12EVERTON
(Prediction: 16th)NORWICH
(Prediction: 20th)34
The average
number of points
needed to survive in
the Premier League
over the past five
yearsRICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGESMané in hospital with the Cape Verde
goalkeeper, with whom he collided