French Ligue 1 outfit Lorient have signed a replacement for central defender Moritz Jenz who has been strongly linked with a move to Scottish Premiership side Celtic this summer. 24-year-old MontassarTaibi has signed for Lorient from Russia Premier League side Rubin Kazan.

Taibi has played 20 times for Tunisia having started his professional career at ES Tunis in his native Tunisia. He moved to CaykurRizespor in the Turkish top flight where he spent three years before leaving the club last year. The defender signed for Russia team Rubin Kazan last summer, but he has made the decision to leave the club after one season mainly due to the ongoing feud between Ukraine and Russia. The feud has affected football activities in the two countries, while clubs from Russia and the Russian national team are banned from competitions in Europe and on the world stage. Continue reading →

Russia will spend the next edition of the UEFA Nations League in section C after the were relegated from section B. The Russians have been relegated from section B to section C without kicking a ball as punishment for the forceful invasion of neighbours Ukraine by president Vladimir Putin and his men.

The Russians were initially drawn in the second group, section B of the current UEFA Nations League campaign. Apart from Russia, Israel, Iceland and Albania are also in the group known as B2. Continue reading →