Blackburn Rovers have completed the signing of on-loan Marseille defender Gael Givet for an undisclosed fee.
The 27-year-old Frenchman has agreed a four-year deal at Ewood Park after impressing at the Premier League club during the second half of last season.
Givet was one of manager Sam Allardyce's first recruits at Rovers in January after the former Newcastle boss replaced Paul Ince.
A former France international, Givet's ability to play at both left-back and centre-half could prove handy for a Blackburn side whose squad is relatively small by the standards of the Premier League's leading teams.
Napoli set to sign Zuniga
Napoli are looking to consolidate their squad for the new Serie A season with the signing of Juan Camilo Zuniga, the 23-year-old Colombian who played for Siena in 2008/2009.
Zuniga left a good impression at Siena last season, playing at right-back and helping the Tuscany team to avoid relegation.
Although attracting the interest of Fiorentina and Milan, Zuniga will in all probability opt to play for Napoli next season.
The San Paolo club have reportedly agreed to pay around €6.5 million for Zuniga who will sign a five-year deal.
Napoli have already signed forward Fabio Quagliarella and under-21 midfielder Luca Cigarini.
Roma takeover talks fall through
A Swiss consortium has failed to agree a takeover of Roma, the Serie A club's main shareholder said.
Soccer agent Vinicio Fioranelli, who heads the consortium, has been talking to Roma for several weeks but shares have fallen in recent days amid media reports the deal would fall through.
"Italpetroli makes clear that up to today, despite the efforts made, the conditions to continue with an evaluation of a possible deal have not been realised," the oil storage company said in a statement.
Italpetroli, run by the Sensi family, was also in talks with billionaire investor George Soros last year but a sale did not materialise.
Caicedo 'treated like a delinquent'
Ecuador striker Felipe Caicedo has issued a writ against restaurant owners in his home country alleging racism after he was taken for a delinquent.
The black Manchester City player, on holiday in the Pacific port city of Guayaquil, was searched and asked to identify himself by police officers called to El Porton restaurant by the owners.
"If he'd been blond, white, with blue eyes... they'd have said what a fine businessman," Caicedo's lawyer Luz Maria Pico said.
"They made him raise his arms, they frisked him and treated him like a delinquent."
Blatter hints at Africa quota rise
FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested yesterday that the quota of African teams at World Cups could rise if they do well at the 2010 tournament.
The continent has six teams participating at the event next year in South Africa for the first time, via five qualifying berths and one as the host country. In contrast, Europe has 13 slots.
"It will not be easy for an African team to win the World Cup because of the law of averages," Blatter said.
"To add more African teams will depend on the results of the African teams.
"Next year they will have the advantage of playing at home... let's see what will happen."
Torres hopeful of another win streak
Fernando Torres has warned that Spain plan to start building another lengthy win streak, starting tomorrow against South Africa.
The European champions saw their 15-match unbeaten record brought to an end by the United States in the Confederations Cup semi-finals and Torres said they would bounce back in the third-place play-off.
"What hurts most is going out in the semi-finals, not the end of the run," the Liverpool striker said.
"We knew that we couldn't possibly win every single game... we have to go back to square one now and start putting some more wins together."
Preston NE boss warns Baggies
Preston North End chairman Derek Shaw has warned Championship rivals West Brom off making a bid for manager Alan Irvine.
The Baggies, relegated from the Premier League last season, are looking for a new manager after Tony Mowbray left for Celtic.
Irvine has won plaudits for his work with Preston since taking over at the northwest side in November 2007.
Shaw said: "I want to assure supporters that we have not had any contact from West Brom over the services of Alan Irvine and we do not want any. The last thing in the world we need at this time is to be searching for another manager - it would be a disaster for us."