ADE AKINBIYI, who gave Arsenal a scare when he found the net for Stoke City in the third round of the FA Cup only to have his effort disallowed, is on the verge of joining Sheffield United for £600,000 as Neil Warnock’s team travel to Highbury for tomorrow’s fifth-round tie.
The Cup-tied forward could make his United debut away to Plymouth Argyle next Tuesday if the deal is completed. Akinbiyi, 30, was in talks with Warnock, the United manager, last night and Stoke would receive an extra £50,000 if his new team were to win promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship.
Akinbiyi, Stoke’s player of the year and top scorer last season, has not added to his seven goals this season since Christmas but he has been linked with moves to Burnley and Wigan Athletic. The former Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers forward, whose career transfers total almost £13 million, joined Stoke in July 2003 on a free transfer from Crystal Palace.
Franz Beckenbauer, the president of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, has criticised the state of the German game over the past six months. “We’ve been a disgrace for half a year. It’s got to stop. We must get back to normality. We’ve been sitting in the s*** for six months,” he said.
He was referring to the long search for a replacement for Rudi Völler as national team coach, political wranglings within the German FA and the present match-fixing scandal.
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Borussia Dortmund, the former European Cup winners who attract home crowds of up to 75,000, are on the brink of bankruptcy, with losses for the financial year ending in June expected to reach £47.5 million.