Serie

Having arrived with Genoa 17th in the Italian top flight, Vieira won eight and drew nine of his 26 games last season to guide them to safety and a 13th-place finish.

However, his only two wins this campaign have come in the Coppa Italia, with six defeats in nine games – including five in the past six – in Serie A.

“The club would like to thank the coach and his staff for the dedication and professionalism they have shown throughout their work and wishes them all the best for their future careers,” Genoa’s statement read.

During his playing career, midfielder Vieira won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups at Arsenal, as well as silverware with AC Milan, Inter Milan and Manchester City.

He helped France win the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

Vieira retired in 2011 and became the manager of New York City in 2016.

He returned to Europe with Nice and led them to seventh in Ligue 1 in his first season but was sacked in December 2020.

Vieira became Crystal Palace manager in 2021 and guided them to the FA Cup semi-finals.

He was sacked in 2023 after a 12-game winless run, before joining RC Strasbourg as their first appointment following a takeover by BlueCo, the company which owns Chelsea. He left Strasbourg by mutual consent in July 2024.

Uefa says it consulted stakeholders and found “widespread lack of support” for league matches to be played abroad, echoing concerns raised by fans, other leagues, clubs, players and European institutions.

But it said world governing body Fifa’s regulatory framework is “not clear and detailed enough” for it to block the plans.

Fifa set up a working group last year to look at the impact of playing competitive domestic matches overseas.

Last year, La Liga said it wanted to hold Barcelona v Atletico Madrid in Miami before dropping the idea because of time constraints.

In 2019, Barcelona also planned to stage a league match against Girona in Miami, but the idea was scrapped after opposition from Spain’s football association and its players’ union.

Other one-off matches, such as the Italian Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup, have been held abroad in recent years.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said in August there are no plans to play an English top-flight match abroad.

The idea of the Premier League playing an extra round outside England – the so-called ’39th game’ – was raised in 2008 but shelved after criticism from fans and media.

Wolves have signed defender Jackson Tchatchoua for 12.5m euros (£10.8m) on a five-year deal from Serie A side Hellas Verona.

The Cameroon international can play as a right-back or wing-back and was last season named the fastest player in Serie A with an average top speed of 34.88 kmph., external

Wolves said the 23-year-old produced a top speed of 36.3kmph last season.

Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven was the fastest player in the Premier League in 2024-25, reaching a top speed of 37.1 kmph and the Dutch defender holds the league record of 37.38kmph.

Belgium-born Tchatchoua started his career at Belgian club Charleroi before spending a year on loan at Hellas before joining them permanently in 2024.

Last season he scored twice and registered three assists in 37 games for Hellas.

He is Wolves’ fifth signing of the window as they secured the permanent transfer of forward Jorgen Strand Larsen for £23m after a successful loan spell, plus forward Fer Lopez for £19m, winger Jhon Arias for £15m and defender David Moller Wolfe for £10m.

The second leg of the Serie B relegation playoff between hosts Salernitana and Sampdoria was abandoned on Sunday after home fans threw smoke bombs and seats onto the pitch.

The former Serie A champions were leading 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate when players were ordered off the field after 65 minutes because of unrest from Salernitana supporters in the stands.

According to Italian media, Sampdoria are likely to be awarded a 3-0 win, which would secure a 5-0 aggregate victory and guarantee their escape from what had seemed certain relegation to the third tier.

Sampdoria, Italian champions in 1991, were initially relegated to Serie C for the first time in their 78-year history, only to be handed a lifeline after the season ended when Brescia were docked eight points, dropping them below Sampdoria and granting the Genoa club a place in the relegation playoff.

Anger began early on in the match when Gian Marco Ferrari thought he had given Salernitana the lead midway through the first half, only for his goal to be ruled out for handball.

Four minutes later Massimo Coda scored for Sampdoria before Giuseppe Sibilli made it 4-0 on aggregate just after the break.

The home fans in Salerno immediately turned on their team following the second goal, with relegation to Serie C looking all but certain.

Flares, firecrackers and chairs were thrown on to the field and the game was halted numerous times before the players were taken off the field with 65 minutes on the clock.

With players of both sides in the dressing room, riot police tried to restore order to the situation.

Referee Daniele Doveri attempted to get the game restarted 10 minutes later but objects began to rain down once again and the match was abandoned.

Salernitana only needed an aggregate draw to stay up because of their higher placing in the table.

The second leg of the play-off, which was originally scheduled for Friday, took place on Sunday following a severe food poisoning outbreak in the Salernitana camp.

A formal request to reschedule the match was accepted after 21 of their travelling party became ill following last week’s 2-0 first-leg defeat.

Napoli beat Cagliari 2-0 to seal the Serie A title as Champions League hopefuls Inter’s victory at Como is in vain.

Napoli secured the Serie A title in style with a 2-0 home win over Cagliari thanks to goals from Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku.

The title race had come down to the wire on Friday, with Napoli holding a one-point advantage over Inter Milan going into the final round of games.

McTominay opened the scoring three minutes before the break with a stunning bicycle kick from Matteo Politano’s cross, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.

Lukaku doubled the lead six minutes after the restart by latching on to a long ball, shrugging off a defender and calmly finishing past Cagliari keeper Alen Sherri.

The rest of the match turned into a celebration at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium as flares and smoke filled the pitch before the final whistle blew and fireworks lit up the Naples sky.

McTominay and Lukaku were the two players Napoli coach Antonio Conte wanted more than any others to help the Naples club reclaim the title they lost to Inter last season.

The former Italian international has now become the first coach to win the Italian championship with three teams, following his victories with Juventus and Inter Milan.

“It happened again, and it’s something wonderful. When we got to the stadium, it was honestly difficult to get in, as I don’t know how many people were there. I had a slight thought, if we let these people down, it’d be something we carried with us for a long time,” he told reporters.

Conte was absent from the touchline for the final match due to suspension, but Napoli completed their task.

“All the credit goes to the boys. Winning in Naples is difficult, these boys are doing it for the second time in two years,” he said. “They are serious boys, you don’t leave in a team that always plays to win.”

Napoli needed only to do the same or better than defending champions Inter in the final round of matches, so Inter’s 2-0 win at 10-man Como was not enough for the Nerazzurri.

Stefan de Vrij and Joaquin Correa netted the goals for Simone Inzaghi’s Inter, who are now left to focus on their Champions League final with Paris Saint-Germain next Saturday.

The results meant Napoli finished Serie A one point ahead of Inter. Had the teams finished level on points, then a playoff would have been required to decide the title.

Mantovani’s death in 1993 was “the beginning of the end at Sampdoria”, according to Italian football journalist David Ferrini.

He added: “Mantovani’s reign attracted talent and kept them happy in Genoa, but his passing – combined with the hangover of the Scudetto success – meant that Sampdoria’s best players became prime transfer targets.”

In 1992 they had lost Vialli to Juventus for a then world record £12m, while Inter Milan paid £7m for Pagliuca in 1994, a record for a goalkeeper at the time.

Vierchowod joined Juventus 12 months later before Mancini followed Sven Goran Eriksson – who had replaced Boskov as manager in 1992 – to Lazio in 1997.

Experienced stars Gullit and Platt joined for brief spells, but Sampdoria no longer had the same appeal they once did.

Enrico Mantovani took over as president but failed to replicate his father’s success – and a steady decline followed the Coppa Italia triumph of 1993-94. In 1999 the club were relegated to Serie B.

Things improved under the presidency of local entrepreneur Riccardo Garrone, who guided them back to Serie A in 2003 and signed future cult heroes Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Cassano.

Yet the highlights of the 21st Century have been losing the Coppa Italia final in 2008-09 and a fourth-place league finish the following year.

Outspoken film producer Massimo Ferrero bought the club in 2014 – taking on its growing debts – but what followed was seven years of selling their best players, spending little on replacements and flirting with relegation on a regular basis.

“He seemed more concerned with bolstering his own image, as the bizarre star of his own one-man reality football show, than making sure Samp prospered,” says Kasiewicz.

In December 2021 Ferrero was arrested and jailed as part of an investigation into corporate crimes and bankruptcy, unrelated to the club. He resigned as president.

“The club effectively ceased to function. It’s been like a house of cards,” says Nima Tavallaey, Italian football journalist and co-host of the Italian Football Podcast.

With no funds available and Ferrero refusing to relinquish control, Sampdoria narrowly avoided relegation from Serie A in 2022. But in 2023 they did go down, amid reports of unpaid player wages.

With the club staring down the barrel of bankruptcy and demotion to the fourth tier, a consortium led by former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani and London-based financier Matteo Manfredi – and his company Gestio Capital – bought the club, although Radrizzani has since divested his shares.

Gestio Capital and its investors control 99.96% of the club, with investment vehicle Kickoff Ventures owning 58% of those shares.

Kickoff Ventures is owned by Singaporean businessman Joseph Tey Wei Jin, who was named in the 2015 Panama Papers.

The month before Sampdoria’s play-off exit Pirlo was called “a key part of the project” by the club’s owners, but three games into the current campaign he was dismissed following two defeats and a draw.

Andrea Sottil replaced him and oversaw a Coppa Italia penalty-shootout victory against Genoa in the first Derby della Lanterna in two years.

However, he too was jettisoned in October 2024 after just four wins in 14 games and replaced by Leonardo Semplici.

With the club in the drop zone, a 3-0 home defeat by Frosinone at the end of March was the tipping point for the fans as patience with Semplici ran out.

The team bus carrying Semplici and his Sampdoria players was pelted by stones and flares by angry supporters after the match at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium.

Semplici was relieved of his duties in April with Alberico Evani – the club’s fourth coach of the season – tasked with keeping them up.

Things began promisingly for Evani with club legend Attilio Lombardo in as assistant and another Sampdoria icon in Roberto Mancini helping in an unofficial capacity.

Evani began with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Cittadella, but three draws, a defeat and just one win since then have not been enough to keep them up.