Bomb threat: The headquarters of the Greek soccer federation in Athens were evacuated yesterday after an anonymous caller said a bomb had been planted in the building. Bomb disposal experts were called in to search the offices of the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) after the newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton received a call saying a bomb would go off at 1pm. Local media reported that the police waited until 3pm before sending in the team, but in the end no bomb was found.

Spurs: Tottenham left Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker at home as they embarked on the 11-hour round trip to Azerbaijan to face Qarabag in the Europa League today. Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino rested the trio with Sunday’s Premier League clash with Chelsea in mind, while he is also without Erik Lamela (groin), Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli and Alex Pritchard (all ankle) through injury.

Brown: Celtic skipper Scott Brown could be out for up to three months with a knee injury, boss Ronny Deila has confirmed. The Hoops skipper will miss the crucial Europa League Group A clash with Ajax tonight after damaging ligaments in the goalless draw against Kilmarnock on Saturday. Deila said: “Scott Brown is out for a while, he is not available. We don’t know for sure yet but I heard it’s eight to 12 weeks.”

Asian award: South Korean pair Son Heung-min and Ki Sung Yueng and Australian midfielder Massimo Luongo were shortlisted for the Asian Football Confederation’s International Player of the Year award. Luongo was named Player of the Tournament as Australia beat South Korea to win the Asian Cup on home soil in January. The fledgling award is one of 21 that will be handed out at the AFC annual ceremony in New Delhi on Sunday.

Blatter: Sepp Blatter is challenging FIFA’s ethics committee’s powers to remove him as president of football’s world governing body, according to his advisor. Blatter and Michel Platini are both facing possible lifetime bans on corruption charges brought by ethics investigators. Blatter’s advisor Klaus Stoehlker said: “Mr Blatter was elected by the FIFA congress and only the congress can remove his power.”

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