Lille sign Kalou

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LILLE: French club Lille signed Ivory Coast forward Salomon Kalou from European Cup winner Chelsea on a four-year deal. The 26-year-old Kalou was available on a free transfer after seeing out the final year of his contract with the Premier League club. Lille announced the deal on their website on Saturday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "Lille is an ambitious club," Kalou said, adding that he joined the club after convincing talks with coach Rudi Garcia. "Lille plays very good football, which it has shown over the last few seasons."

Criscito suspected

ROME: Italy defender Domenico Criscito will be questioned by the Italian football federation over his alleged role in the match-fixing scandal on July 16. Criscito was dropped from Italy’s European Championship squad after police interrogated the Zenit St Petersburg player at the national team’s training headquarters shortly before the tournament. He is suspected of alleged wrongdoings while at Genoa. Around 50 people have been arrested since last year in the investigation into the latest match-fixing scandal to hit Italy. Prosecutors in Cremona, Bari and Naples have detailed an extensive match-fixing ring stretching as far as Singapore and South America that was allegedly in operation for more than 10 years.

Bielsa furious

BILBAO: Athletic Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa scuffled with a building contractor after his company failed to finish remodeling work at the Spanish league club's facilities, drawing the ire of his bosses on Friday. The Argentine coach told a more than hourlong news conference that he lost his cool after returning to the club's Lezama training facilities, which looked more like a construction site than a football field for preseason training. "I was furious that they wouldn't recognise the problems and I started verbally abusing them. I then took him by his body and threw him out," Bielsa said. Surprisingly, Bilbao refuted Bielsa's claims, apologising to the construction company for any damage to its image caused by Bielsa's comments.