Sporting briefs

Southampton: The future of former FA Cup winners Southampton looked a little brighter yesterday when administrators said they had found a potential buyer in a consortium backed by former player Matthew Le Tissier. The joint administrators of Southampton Leisure Holdings Plc, the holding company of the struggling south coast club, said they had entered into a 21-day exclusivity agreement with the Pinnacle Consortium.

Germany held: A tired and weakened Germany got their Asian Tour got off to a lacklustre start when they were held to a 1-1 draw by a young China team in an international friendly yesterday. Showing the clear effects of a gruelling season, Germany needed an equaliser from Lukas Podolski to cancel out Hao Junmin's opener and avoid an embarrassing defeat to the Chinese, who are 95 places below them in the FIFA rankings. Germany play the UAE in the second match of the Asia Tour in Dubai on Tuesday.

Accrington: League Two club Accrington Stanley face a High Court winding up order next month because of a 300,000-pound debt. Accrington, promoted back to the Football League in 2006, 44 years after financial problems forced them to resign from it, said the debts related to unpaid tax and national insurance contributions. Accrington's attendances averaged 1,415 this season, while they were also hit by the loss of their main sponsor.

Juan: Brazil defender Juan has agreed a new four-year deal with Roma, the Serie A club said. The 30-year-old centre back has consistently produced good performances since joining from Bayer Leverkusen in 2007 to fill the gap left by Cristian Chivu's move to Inter. He helped Roma win the Italian Cup and finish second behind Inter in his first season in Serie A. With a game to go, the club are certain to finish sixth this term and qualify for the Europa League.

Chelsea: Chelsea signed Russian international midfielder Yury Zhirkov on a four-year term from Russian three-time champions CSKA Moscow, the daily tabloid Tvoi Den reported yesterday. Reports said that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was excited with Zhirkov's performances this season and has negotiated a 30-million-dollar deal with the Red Army side.

Snowboarding: Former snowboard Olympic champion Karine Ruby, of France, has died following a mountain accident, the French Skiing Federation (FFS) said. "It happened in the afternoon, she is dead," a FFS spokeswoman told Reuters without elaborating. Ruby, 31, won the giant slalom gold medal in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.

Tennis: Leading Indian player Sania Mirza has become engaged to a business scholar from her hometown of Hyderabad but has no plans to retire from competitive tennis. The 22-year-old Mirza is a youth icon in a nation starved for sporting success after she became the first Indian to win a WTA tour title and break into the world's top 50 in 2005.

Nascar: Tony Eury Jr. was replaced as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief in the wake of a 40th place finish by NASCAR's most popular driver at the Coca-Cola 600. The poor finish in Monday's rain-delayed race at Charlotte dropped Earnhardt to 19th in the Sprint Cup Series standings.

Golf: Phil Mickelson expressed optimism about his wife Amy's breast cancer, saying that doctors believed they had diagnosed the condition early. "We have a wonderful team of doctors helping us and it is believed that we caught this early," Mickelson said. The American world number two suspended his PGA Tour campaign indefinitely last week after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

Sumo: A former sumo gym boss was sentenced to six years in prison following the death of a 17-year-old trainee wrestler in 2007. Nagoya's District Court found that Junichi Yama-moto, 59, ordered wrestlers at his sumo stable to beat Takashi Saito, who later died from his injuries.

Basketball, NBA: LeBron James put on a virtuoso performance in the fourth quarter to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 112-102 win over the Orlando Magic as the Eastern Conference top seeds staved off elimination. James tallied 17 of his 37 points in the final period to pull the Cavs back to 3-2 in the best-of-seven conference finals series.