Football news

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has granted Carlos Queiroz’s request to have his six-month suspension imposed by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Agency lifted pending the outcome of his appeal.

The former Portugal coach was handed the sanction – which prevented him from working in Portugal – for alleged misbehaviour during an anti-doping testing session before the World Cup. He was then sacked two days after Portugal suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat to Norway in Euro 2012 qualifying earlier this month.

The ruling from the CAS means he is free to work until the appeal hearing, which CAS do not expect to take place before mid-November.

Houllier signs Aston Villa deal

Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has finally put pen to paper on a three-year contract. Houllier agreed to take charge of the Midlands club just over a fortnight ago as Martin O’Neill’s successor.

He revealed at his press conference ahead of Wednesday’s Carling Cup tie with Blackburn that he had shaken hands with club owner Randy Lerner on the contract and that signing it was merely a formality.

But the 63-year-old Frenchman has now signed on the dotted line and formerly committed himself to Villa until the end of the 2012-13 season.

His last game in the top flight in England was as Liverpool boss in May 2004.

Berbatov makes notes about Fergie

Dimitar Berbatov has revealed he makes notes about Alex Ferguson’s management techniques just in case he decides to be a boss one day.

The Bulgarian is rewarding Ferguson for the immense faith he has shown in him by finally finding the form that persuaded the Manchester United boss to spend a club record £30.75 million to sign him from Tottenham two years ago.

Berbatov always sensed he would benefit from working under Ferguson’s guidance.

“He is one of the most successful managers in the history of the game,” said Berbatov.

“I write things down about the way we train and how he treats people. It is like a school. You work with the best manager and play with the best players.”

Mackie in line for Scotland call-up

Craig Levein is considering handing QPR striker Jamie Mackie a call-up for Scotland’s Euro 2012 double header against the Czech Republic and Spain next month.

Mackie has caught the eye of the Scotland boss with eight goals in seven Championship games this season and, with James McFadden ruled out with a cruciate injury, Levein looks set to draft in the former Plymouth striker.

The 24-year-old was born in Dorking, Surrey, but qualifies for Scotland through his grandfather, who is from Kilmarnock.

Levein said: “Jamie is a player we have been aware of for some time and we have monitored his progress at QPR.”

Tottenham close to Khumalo deal

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said that the Premier League side were hopeful of concluding a £1.5 million deal for South Africa defender Bongani Khumalo.

The 23-year-old had a trial at White Hart Lane and is expected to move from South African league side Supersports when the transfer window opens in January.

“We’re in the process of doing a deal for him. He’s not expensive. We had him over on trial and we like him. He’s got potential and we’ve got a tie up with Supersports so we’ve taken him on,” said Redknapp.

Khumalo, who was born in Swaziland, scored during this summer’s World Cup win over France.

Maradona eager to coach Argentina

Diego Maradona, axed two months ago as Argentina coach, said he would give everything to be in charge of the national team once again.

“I would give my life to be the coach again,” Maradona told Fox TV in his first interview since losing his job following the 4-0 defeat to Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals.

Maradona also repeated that he had been let down by the top officials at the Argentina Football Association, in particular AFA president Julio Grondona.

Grondona “said that we had had a good World Cup and that it was necessary to continue like that until the Copa America in 2011. It would be an adventure together”.

Beckham goes the distance

David Beckham threw caution to the wind on Friday and played a full 90 minutes in his first start of the 2010 season for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Beckham was just as surprised as his team-mates that he stayed in for the entire game in the Galaxy’s 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls.

“It was good to get 90 minutes,” Beckham said.

The 35-year-old, ex-England captain created scoring chances, took a free-kick, survived a hard tackle early that tested his injury and received a yellow card late in the match for a hard tackle of his own in front of a crowd of 27,000 at The Home Depot Centre.