Anderson: Brazilian midfielder Anderson has extended his Manchester United contract until June 2015. Former Porto player Anderson has signed a four-and-a-half-year extension to his present deal after returning from injury problems this season.
Tunisia: Bertrand Marchand was sacked as coach of Tunisia after a disastrous start to their bid to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup. The 57-year-old Frenchman had signed a two-year contract in June 2010 with the task of guiding the Tunisians to the 2012 Africa Cup finals. However, two defeats and a draw leaves the team struggling to qualify.
Parc Des Princes: Colony Capital, owners of Paris SG, will have their long-term leasehold on the club’s Parc des Princes ground extended next March. The same source said the lease would be for “between 40 and 50 years”. Colony Capital are the only remaining candidates to take up the lease, after Jacky Lorenzetti, president of rugby union side Racing-Metro, was dropped from the running.
Bristol Rovers: Paul Trollope has been sacked as manager of League One side Bristol Rovers. The decision comes following a poor run of results which has seen Rovers exit the FA Cup, concede six goals at Sheffield Wednesday and lose 3-0 at home to Leyton Orient.
Refs’ errors: Swiss club executives have been invited to join a referees’ retreat over the winter break after a top club owner threatened a TV campaign to highlight refereeing errors. Christian Constantin, president of Sion, said he had dropped the idea after the Swiss football league promised to start discussing reforms.
Player dies: Equatorial Guinea women’s international Teclaire Bille Esono has been killed in a road accident in Cameroon. Esono, 22, was a key member of the Equatorial Guinean team which finished runners-up in the African championships and which qualified for the FIFA World Cup in Germany from June 26 to July 17, 2011.
Basket, NBA: Kobe Bryant shrugged off three missed free-throws and delivered a quartet of key three-pointers in the LA Lakers’ 103-89 win over Washington. Bryant scored 16 of his 24 points in the third period and Andrew Bynum made his season debut for the Lakers and scored seven points as Washington struggled in the absence of John Wall and Andray Blatche and after Chinese forward Yi Jianlian departed injured in the first quarter.
Cricket: Former Australian captain Steve Waugh is behind a radical plan to have international players face lie detector tests in a bid to eradicate corruption from the game. Waugh is part of the Marylebone Cricket Club World Cricket Committee that has been meeting in Perth this week and come up with a number of recommendations it will pass on to the ICC. The proposals also include legalising and regulating betting in India and calling for television replays to be scrapped for low catches.
Rugby: New Zealand chiefs backed plans by All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams to resume his boxing career just weeks away from a season culminating in the World Cup. Williams, 25, will fight Australian Scott Lewis on January 29 next year in his third professional bout, the New Zealand Rugby Union said. The NZRU said it was comfortable with the fight, despite the danger of injury to a player hailed as the new Jonah Lomu.
Rallying: Ex-Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen will “most likely” leave team Citroen to compete in the 2011 rally season for Ford, a Finnish newspaper reported yesterday. “Funding for the project is coming especially from the United States, and Raikkonen might get an opportunity to also race in a few Nascar events in North America,” the Ilta-Sanomat reported. Citroen told the daily on Tuesday it had made no progress in months-long negotiations to keep Raikkonen on its team.