Football news

Argentina coach Diego Maradona would give anything to be able to play in Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Brazil.

Argentina have been beset by injury worries before the game in Rosario, prompting Maradona to add 30-year-old midfielder Rodrigo Brana, 35-year-old striker Martin Palermo and 36-year-old defender Rolando Schiavi to his squad.

"Yesterday, when I met up with the players, I said that I'd give anything to be 20 years younger and be able to play myself," Maradona said.

"But after all these problems we have to move forward. The ones who can't play will just have to wait for the next game and the ones who can will have to be decisive on the field."

Lazio rebels left out of Euro squad

Goran Pandev and Cristian Ledesma have been left out of Lazio's Europa League squad after demanding but failing to gain moves in the transfer window.

Macedonia striker Pandev has threatened to take legal action after being frozen out by coach Davide Ballardini and president Claudio Lotito.

Argentine midfielder Ledesma has also been omitted despite reports saying he was close to agreeing a new contract.

Defender Lorenzo De Silvestri, who also asked to leave, was allowed to join Fiorentina last week.

Milner plays down conspiracy talk

England winger James Milner has ruled out conspiracy theories that Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was deliberately injured ahead of a World Cup qualifier at Wembley.

Croatia FA supremo Vlatko Markovic on Tuesday said: "First Eduardo, now Luka Modric. This is horrible. I can only ask myself if it was really an accident."

But Markovic's claims have been quickly dismissed in Fabio Capello's camp with Aston Villa star Milner saying: "It's just bad luck, that's the way it is in football.

"People are making more of it but obviously it's nonsense. We just go out there and try and play as well as we can. You don't look at who you are tackling or anything like that when you are on the field."

Morimoto destined for big things

Italy-based Japanese striker Takayuki Morimoto has been targeted by some of Europe's leading clubs, with Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson among his many admirers, a team official said.

Morimoto, 21, who plays for Catania in Serie A, was recently called up to the Japan squad for the first time and big things are expected of him.

"We will transfer him to a big club after the end of this season," Catania general manager Pietro Lo Monaco said.

"We, only a small club, can do nothing more for him. We have already received important offers from England and France this summer as well. Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson also highly rates him."

Carragher cool about slow start

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher insists his side's slow start to the season won't affect their Premier League title challenge.

Rafael Benitez's team lost two of their opening three league games and only narrowly claimed a come-from-behind 3-2 victory against Bolton on Saturday. But Carragher, 31, believes that hard-fought success at the Reebok Stadium typifies the team's character.

"We have taken a bit of criticism and rightly so, because we haven't made the best of starts," Carragher said.

"But no-one can ever write us off. Ourselves and Manchester United, not just in this league but probably anywhere in the world, are the best at coming back from deficits."

No Ribery deal with Real Madrid

Bayern Munich do not have an agreement in place to sell Franck Ribery to Real Madrid next season, Bayern general director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.

Ribery, contracted to Bayern until 2011, wanted to join Real in the close season but the Bundesliga side refused to budge, insisting their valuable playmaker was not for sale.

"We do not have an agreement with Real to sell Franck next season. That is a fact," Rummenigge said.

He said Ribery was also never an issue during negotiations to sign Dutch winger Arjen Robben.

"The first time I called Real Madrid (about Robben) the people there asked me whether there was any chance of getting Ribery now and I said this is not an issue," Rummenigge said.

English FA search for new sponsors

English FA chiefs confirmed that energy company E.ON will not renew its FA Cup sponsorship deal at the end of this season.

E.ON's four-year deal was believed to be worth €51 million to the FA and a search will now begin for a new sponsor for the tournament.

An FA spokesman said: "The FA can confirm that E.ON's sponsorship of the FA Cup will come to a close at the end of the current 2009-10 season. We now look forward to taking the FA Cup sponsorship opportunity to the open market for the 2010-14 period."

FA chiefs are confident that the market value of the competition remains high and that they will attract an equal or bigger deal for the next four-year cycle.