Sporting briefs

Aguirre fired: Atletico Madrid have hired Abel Resino as coach to replace Javier Aguirre, who stepped down after agreeing to end his contract, the Primera Liga club's president Enrique Cerezo said. Cerezo said that the club had reached an agreement with former Atletico goalkeeper Resino, who is coach of Castellon.

Buffon: Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is out of today's Italian Cup quarter-final at home to Napoli with 'flu but Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet could start after injury, coach Claudio Ranieri told reporters. "We want to win because the competition interests us," Ranieri said.

Cas appeal: FIFA has backed the Italian federation's attempts to appeal a recent CAS ruling which banned Daniele Mannini and Davide Possanzini for a year for being late for a drugs test. The Italian federation said in a statement that FIFA president Sepp Blatter had guaranteed full support to Napoli's Mannini and Brescia's Possanzini.

Degen: Liverpool defender Phillip Degen will be out for four to five weeks after suffering a foot injury. "Scans have revealed there is no break to the metatarsal, but it will still be at least a month before he is back in action," a statement said.

West Brom: Argentine winger Juan Carlos Menseguez has joined West Bromwich Albion from San Lorenzo on loan. The 24-year-old was previously at Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga from 2003 to 2007.

$1 billion facelift: Oil-rich Angola hopes to erase the world's memory of it as a place torn by almost three decades of civil war with a $1 billion makeover to host the 2010 Africa Cup. Among the top investments will be four new stadiums for $600 million. The stadiums will be built by China's Shanghai Urban Construction Group. Angola is also investing $400 million to revamp old airports and new hotels are being built to accommodate some of the thousands of fans expected during the January 10-31 competition.

Cricket: Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan equalled the world record for one-day international wickets but was powerless to prevent India amassing a huge 363 for five yesterday. Centuries by Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh rescued the visitors after they had slumped to 24 for two. Yuvraj was eventually out when he cut Muralitharan to Chamara Kapugedera at point, giving the off-spinner his 502nd wicket and tying the record held by Pakistan's Wasim Akram.

Badminton: A group of women badminton players from the United States will play in a tournament in Iran this month, the State Department said in the latest sporting exchange between the long-time adversaries. The Feb. 3-9 visit to Tehran by eight players along with four coaches and managers is the first such exchange since the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Barack Obama, who has made clear his aim of pursuing greater engagement with Iran.

Swimming: Australia's triple Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice is planning to increase her programme at this year's world championships in Rome. In Beijing, Rice won gold in the 200 and 400 metres IM and the 4x200 relay, all in world record time. The 20-year-old will race in both medleys and 200 freestyle at the Australian trials next month, but is adding another four events. Rice will also enter the 100 and 200 fly, 100 back and 100 free, giving her a possible total of seven individual events plus the possibility of three relays.

Super Bowl: Sunday's Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals drew a US TV audience of around 90 million, down about six per cent from 2008 but again TV's most-watched event of the year. Early ratings showed nearly half of American homes with TVs were watching the last half-hour of the nail-biting game in which professional football's Steelers defeated the Cardinals 27-23.