Football Briefs: Vardy and Cahill call time on England careers

News of all that's transpired on and off the football field 

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy says he no longer wants to be considered for England duty and wishes to focus his time on his club career.

The 32-year-old, who featured at the World Cup in Russia, said he had spoken to England manager Gareth Southgate about his decision but remained available to help should the team face injury problems.

"To be honest with you, this has been on my mind for a while," Vardy told the Guardian.

"I'm not getting any younger and you can see, to be fair to the gaffer, he wants to make it more youthful, which obviously had its benefits during the World Cup – we got to the semi-finals and finished fourth, which is equal to the furthest we have ever been on foreign soil.

"So I just said to Gareth that I think it's probably best from now on, especially with the way he wants to go, to bring youngsters in who he thinks have got the ability and start nurturing them into international football," he said.

Vardy was restricted to the bench for most of the World Cup in Russia and said his lack of playing time had influenced his decision.

"When you get selected, you want to be playing. If you're playing week in, week out for your club, you want to be going to England to play as well. And if it's not happening, then for me personally now it's better to be at home, spending that time with my family and training with my club, preparing for the next game after the international break.

"I thought I could have helped a bit more if I had more minutes. You know that you can hurt opponents in certain ways, in the way you play. But it wasn't to be. And you have to respect the manager's decisions."

Vardy said he had expressed his intention to Southgate shortly after the World Cup and confirmed it in a recent phone calls.

"We've not shut the door completely. If the worst came to happen and everyone was injured, then obviously I wouldn't say no," he said.

Chelsea central defender Gary Cahill has also announced his decision to take a "step back" from England duties after a similar conversation with Southgate.

The 32-year-old defender, who has won 61 England caps, has struggled to force his way into the first-team under manager Maurizio Sarri this season.

Real on verge of re-signing Mariano Diaz, says Sevilla president

Sevilla president Jose Castro says Real Madrid have activated their option to buy back Olympique Lyonnais striker Mariano Diaz despite his team negotiating to sign the forward.

Real sold Mariano to Lyon in 2017 and are on the verge of bringing him back to help fill the gap left by Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Juventus.

Sevilla had agreed a deal with Mariano but Madrid activated their first-option clause included in the transfer that took the 25-year-old to France.

"We are an ambitious club and we try to make ambitious signings. Madrid had a first option and they have told us they will execute it," Castro told reporters Tuesday.

"But the player has not told us anything and we are waiting for him to respond because he told us a thousand and one times that he wanted to play for Sevilla."

Mariano joined Lyon for 8 million euros ($9.2 million) and Madrid are expecting to re-buy him for around 25 million euros, according to reports in Spain which also say Real still own 35 percent of the player's sporting rights.

Stadium built for Russia's World Cup left in dark over unpaid bills

Electricity was cut on Tuesday at a Russian stadium built for this year's soccer World Cup over unpaid bills, a power supplier in the city of Samara told Reuters, despite President Vladimir Putin saying he did not want such venues to fall into disuse.

Samaraenergo said the power supply was cut early on Tuesday because PSO Kazan, the company that built the 42,000-seat stadium, had not paid its electricity bills this year and had racked up 9,216,000 roubles ($137,600) in debt.

"We waited for a long time, we delayed the power cut," said Olga Perkova, a spokeswoman for Samaraenergo.

"Because PSO Kazan did not resolve the issue of paying its debt, a decision was made to cut electricity."

But after an internal meeting on Tuesday, Samaraenergo decided to turn the power back on because of upcoming Russian Premier League matches at the Samara Arena, even though it remains unclear when PSO Kazan will clear its debt, Perkova said. PSO Kazan did not reply to a request for comment.