Newcomer Aleksandr Golovin was injured in training with the AS Monaco squad on Wednesday, August 8, according to local French-language daily Monaco Matin.
Midfielder Golovin, 22, was signed by Monaco for nearly 30 million euros following a sterling performance on the Russian team during the recent World Cup competition.
According to the club, he suffered a sprained right ankle. Monaco’s first game in the new Ligue 1 season is on Saturday, August 11, away to Nantes, a match that the Russian is almost certain to miss. He may be out of action for several weeks, according to insiders.
The Force India Formula One team has been saved from creditors by an investment consortium headed by fashion entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll.
Stroll had the assistance of the F1 team’s chief operations officer, Otmar Szafnauer, and the team’s senior management in his bid to salvage Force India, motorsport.com reports.
Force India has been in administration since the Friday before the Hungarian Grand Prix as parties involved sought to protect it against the threat of a winding-up order over mounting debts.
Stroll’s fellow investors are Canadian entrepreneur Andre Desmarais, Jonathan Dudman of Monaco Sports and Management, fashion business leader John Idol, telecommunications investor John McCaw Jr, financial expert Michael de Picciotto, and Stroll’s business partner Silas Chou.
Force India’s creditors will be paid in full. All 405 jobs at the team have been saved and ongoing funding has been guaranteed.
The new set-up, which signed an exclusivity agreement on Tuesday, takes over ownership of the team from Vijay Mallya and Orange India Holdings Sarl.
The team is currently sixth in the constructors’ contest, seven points behind Haas and 23 behind fourth-placed Renault.
AS Monaco joins fledgling eFootball.Pro competition
AS Monaco has become the third team to join the eFootball.Pro competition, joining FC Barcelona and Schalke 04. The competition is open exclusively to football clubs, according to esportsinsider.com, and will be played using Konami’s football video game series.
Juli Ferre, AS Monaco Commercial and Marketing Director, said: “One year after having created our dedicated eSports structure, this is another step forward in the electronic sports industry for AS Monaco. The club, which is already participating in different games, shows with this new move its commitment to position itself as a key player in this area.”
He added: “We are delighted to be the third club joining, as founding partners along with FC Barcelona and Schalke 04, in the first international electronic sports league for football clubs only. We are very excited to soon be competing with such great challengers, in this tough competition which will provide great moments to share with our fans.”
Gerard Piqué, founder and president of eFootball.Pro, added: ”Monaco is currently one of the greatest European clubs and a very expected addition to eFootball.Pro. They are already in several eSports leagues with other games and will undoubtedly be a rival to take into account in our competition. The rest of the clubs will have to be on the alert for their moves before and during the season.”
Government urges precautions in dealing with possible ozone pollution
Due to persistent high temperatures and low winds this summer, the Prince’s Government has issued a number of recommendations to residents in the face of elevated ozone levels. However, the most recent data, from Promenade des Anglais in Nice on August 6, shows ‘moderate’ ozone levels with an AQI score of 59, well below the level that should cause concerns to the majority of people.
The Principality is aligned with objectives set by European Directives, the Government said in a press release. When the ozone threshold of 180 μg/m3 of air is exceeded, the Directorate of the Environment informs the population.
Ozone pollution results from the action of the sun on certain automotive and industrial pollutants. It grows with the intensity of the sun and when the winds are weak. The maximum concentrations are most often observed in summer and in areas that may be far from the actual sources of pollution.
Air quality in the Principality is monitored by an automated network of five measuring stations: Rue Grimaldi, Boulevard Charles III, Place des Moulins, Fontvieille and Quai Antoine 1er.
Air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust and ozone are measured continuously.
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