{"id":287716,"date":"2023-08-24T22:36:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T22:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=287716"},"modified":"2023-08-24T22:36:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T22:36:54","slug":"ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/","title":{"rendered":"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Joleon Lescott quits England U21s role to pursue his dream of becoming a director of football\u2026 PLUS, why investigators looking into Granit Xhaka booking were thwarted &#8211; AHEAD OF THE GAME\u00a0<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Former England defender Joleon Lescott has left his role with England U21s\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He will pursue a career as a sporting director and remains involved at Man City<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>WATCH: &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off&#8217; &#8211; Episode 2 &#8211; Mail Sport&#8217;s brand new football show\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Former England defender Joleon Lescott has left his role as England Under 21s coach as he wants to pursue a career as a sporting director.<\/p>\n<p>The former Manchester City, Everton and Wolves centre back was employed as a consultant coach by the FA during this summer\u2019s Euros, which Lee Carsley\u2019s England side won in Georgia by beating Spain 1-0 in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Carsley and assistant Ashley Cole will stay on for England\u2019s title defence in 2025 \u2014 a campaign which begins with a qualifier against Luxembourg next month.<\/p>\n<p>But Lescott, 41, will not be part of the set-up as his plan is to work as a sporting director.<\/p>\n<p>He remains involved at City in ambassadorial and media roles.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/24\/21\/74698993-12442869-image-a-26_1692909855751.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joleon Lescott has left his coaching role at England U21s to pursue a career as a sporting director<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/24\/21\/74698987-12442869-image-a-27_1692909866918.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>An investigation into Granit Xhaka&#8217;s controversial booking against Leeds 18 months ago has hit a dead end<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/24\/21\/74699221-12442869-image-a-28_1692910174127.jpg\" height=\"442\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>An FA investigation into the incident was escalated to a criminal inquiry, which was dropped earlier this summer. Xhaka was never accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0Yellow card<span>\u00a0<\/span>gambling probe hits dead end<\/h2>\n<p>Anti-corruption investigators looking into suspicious gambling activity surrounding Granit Xhaka\u2019s infamous booking in Arsenal\u2019s 4-1 win over Leeds 18 months ago were thwarted by the fact the biggest bets were made in unregulated cryptocurrency markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A Crypto operator registered in the Caribbean island of Curacao lost \u00a3400,000 on bets placed on Xhaka to be booked in a Premier League game in December 2021, but the International Betting Integrity Association were unable to take up the case as the company were not members.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The FA investigated for six months before it was escalated to a criminal inquiry, but that was dropped without any charges being brought earlier this summer. Xhaka was never accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<h2>Oldham fans slammed for pitch invasion<\/h2>\n<p>Chesterfield fans have been flooding message boards criticising Oldham supporters for invading the pitch after scoring an injury-time equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw last Saturday despite their own club\u2019s recent history of ground incursion.<\/p>\n<p>Pitch invasions in successive home games at the SMH Group Stadium in 2019 led to Chesterfield issuing banning orders to fans of between three and 10 years, and 17 fans were given life bans by the club back in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Derbyshire Police are investigating last weekend\u2019s scenes which also saw Chesterfield goalkeeper Harry Tyrer pushed to the ground during the invasion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/24\/21\/74699283-12442869-image-a-29_1692910329697.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>World Cup winners Spain have been beating their final opponents England for shirt sales<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/24\/21\/74699315-12442869-image-a-30_1692910349165.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The red Adidas shirts have achieved a 29 per cent sell-out rate, compared to Nike&#8217;s 15 per cent<\/p>\n<h2>Big shirt sales for World Champions Spain<\/h2>\n<p>Spain\u2019s World Cup final victory over England in Sydney last weekend has also been replicated off the pitch, with their iconic red adidas shirt proving more attractive to fans than the Lionesses\u2019 Nike outfit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sales data seen by Mail Sport shows adidas reporting a 29 per cent sell-out rate of the Spanish kit across the world compared to Nike\u2019s 15 per cent. The German firm also fared better in selling other nations\u2019 kits, selling out 24 per cent of all team\u2019s shirts compared to Nike\u2019s 12 per cent \u2014 a figure not helped by the United States\u2019 shock second-round exit.<\/p>\n<p>Their failure, until now, to produce a replica England goalkeeper shirt was an own-goal which angered Mary Earps, who won the Golden Glove award.<\/p>\n<h2>Des Kelly&#8217;s Gundogan gag<\/h2>\n<p>The real story behind former BT Sport reporter Des Kelly\u2019s request for Ilkay Gundogan\u2019s autograph after Manchester City\u2019s Champions League final win over Inter Milan can be revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kelly\u2019s unusual request was a set-up for a joke involving giving Gundogan\u2019s signature to City to place on a new contract, but time prevented him giving the punchline.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Gundogan decided against renewing his contract at City and joined Barcelona, and Kelly also left BT Sport. The signed armband was auctioned off for charity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12442869\/Joleon-Lescott-quits-England-U21s-role-pursue-dream-director-football-PLUS-investigators-looking-Granit-Xhaka-booking-thwarted-AHEAD-GAME.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joleon Lescott quits England U21s role to pursue his dream of becoming a director of football\u2026 PLUS, why investigators looking into Granit Xhaka booking were thwarted &#8211; AHEAD OF THE GAME\u00a0 Former England defender Joleon Lescott has left his role with England U21s\u00a0 He will pursue a career as a sporting director and remains involved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joleon Lescott quits England U21s role to pursue his dream of becoming a director of football\u2026 PLUS, why investigators looking into Granit Xhaka booking were thwarted &#8211; AHEAD OF THE GAME\u00a0 Former England defender Joleon Lescott has left his role with England U21s\u00a0 He will pursue a career as a sporting director and remains involved [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/\",\"name\":\"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Soccer\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/category\/soccer\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Life Tale\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\",\"name\":\"Robert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Robert\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale","og_description":"Joleon Lescott quits England U21s role to pursue his dream of becoming a director of football\u2026 PLUS, why investigators looking into Granit Xhaka booking were thwarted &#8211; AHEAD OF THE GAME\u00a0 Former England defender Joleon Lescott has left his role with England U21s\u00a0 He will pursue a career as a sporting director and remains involved [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/","og_site_name":"Sports Life Tale","article_published_time":"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00","author":"Robert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Robert","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/","url":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/","name":"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role - Sports Life Tale","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-24T22:36:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/ahead-of-the-game-lescott-leaves-england-under-21s-role\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Soccer","item":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/category\/soccer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AHEAD OF THE GAME: Lescott leaves England Under 21s role"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/","name":"Sports Life Tale","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609","name":"Robert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Robert"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}