Administrator expects bid fall-out

Administrator expects bid fall-out

Published Jul. 24, 2013 3:15 p.m. ET

Luiz Gustavo insists he is not looking for a move away from Bayern Munich amid mounting transfer speculation.

The Brazilian midfielder has seen his place in the Bayern side called into question following the summer arrivals of Mario Gotze and Thiago Alcantara.

It is difficult to see how Pep Guardiola is going to fit the wealth of talent he has at his disposal into a starting XI, and keep everyone happy over the course of the 2013/14 campaign.

The potential availability of Gustavo has been noted at Wolfsburg, who have admitted to holding an interest, while Arsenal have also been linked with an imminent approach.

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Gustavo is aware that his future has become the subject of much conjecture, but the 26-year-old says he has not sparked the rumours and would be happy to remain at the Allianz Arena.

A man who helped Bayern to an historic Treble last season told Deutsche Presseagentur: "I want to stay on at Bayern Munich.

"I am under contract with the club and I want to fulfil that commitment.

"I have been in a position to fight for a first team role throughout my career. I will keep on fighting this year, too."

The new Scottish Professional Football League chief executive on Wednesday revealed that the four divisions would be termed the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Championship, Scottish League One and Scottish League Two, replicating the names of the English leagues.

The lion-based logo of the SPFL, which was formed when the two league bodies merged, is also very similar to the Barclays Premier League insignia.

Amid accusations of a lack of imagination in the branding, Doncaster insisted the motif reflected the passion and drama of the Scottish game and feels the change of name for the second tier will send a message about its importance.

Doncaster, a former Football League director, said: "People are certainly familiar with what it represents. When the names changed in England, we saw the Championship elevated in terms of stature within the game and our sincere hope is that will also be the case here.

"So many of the changes we have created - the redistribution of £1.5million from the top flight to the second tier, the introduction of play-offs that will keep the Scottish Championship alive right to the end - so much of the benefit is about Championship clubs and ensuring full-time professional football is viable at that level."

The SPFL remains without a main sponsor ahead of the season opener between Partick Thistle and Dundee United a week on Friday, but Doncaster believes it is now in a stronger position to attract a key business partner.

"We've only been in existence for three weeks, we now have clarity and certainty about the structure people will be investing in and we now have the branding and names of the different tiers of Scottish football," he said.

"Let's see where that gets us.

"I'm confident, particularly with the benefit of at least four years of clarity with broadcasting contracts, that puts us in a very good place for conversations with partners and sponsors."

The Foundation of Hearts fans' group is competing with two rival parties to buy the Scottish Premiership club - one involving former Livingston owner Angelo Massone and another a partnership between US investors and Scottish businessman Bob Jamieson.

The interested parties submitted bids earlier this month and were asked to provide evidence of their financial power by the end of this afternoon.

Jackson told STV: "I'd imagine that one or two could fall away - they produce some sort of proof of funding but we need to decide if that's strong enough for us.

"I can see us making a decision on one or two of the offers that come in after close of business today.

"We will need a couple of days to look at what we have but we may still have to go back to the interested parties to clarify one or two things.

"Hopefully we can move to preferred bidder status within a couple of weeks."

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