Euro 2012: Reigning champions Spain, England, Italy, Croatia, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Russia are the nine seeds for the Euro 2012 qualifying draw. The next Euro Championship will take place in Ukraine and Poland in 2012, but the draw for the qualifying campaign is on February 7. There will be nine groups, six of which are made up of six sides and the remaining three groups of five teams.
Pulis: Stoke manager Tony Pulis has pledged to deal with Robert Huth after he appeared to hit West Ham defender Matthew Upson in the face during the 2-1 victory at the Britannia Stadium. "I will have a look at it and obviously if he has done it we will speak to him and deal with him in-house," Pulis said.
West Ham: A multi-national consortium is lining up a £100m bid to buy West Ham. A newspaper report claims the London-based Intermarket Group began negotiations on Friday with a view to buying the club before the January transfer window. Wealthy West Ham fans are believed to comprise the consortium which is being headed up by Wall Street businessman Jim Bowe.
World Cup bid: Australia's football federation have signed up Peter Hargitay, the former strategist of the England 2018 World Cup bid, as their campaign adviser. Hargitay's company, ECN, was initially hired by the England bid team but parted company following Lord Triesman's appointment as Football Association chairman. Hargitay, a Swiss national, was FIFA president Sepp Blatter's special adviser between 2002 and 2007.
Defoe apology: Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe has apologised for his red card against Portsmouth after getting a dressing down from Harry Redknapp in front of his team-mates in the changing room. Redknapp was furious when the England striker stamped on Aaron Mokoena in the 2-1 win at Fratton Park. When asked if the England striker had apologised, Redknapp said: "Yes. He's sorry for what's done. For sure. I gave him a rollicking in front of all the lads, to be fair."
Newell sacked: League Two club Grimsby yesterday axed manager Mike Newell. Grimsby are 23rd in the table after losing 2-0 at home to Rochdale on Saturday, their fourth league defeat in succession.
Boxing: Carl Froch held on to his WBC super-middleweight title in a split decision win over an elusive Andre Dirrell. The Briton ended the unbeaten record of his American challenger as he defended his world title in his first fight as part of a global tournament to determine the best super-middleweight in the world over the next two years.
Tennis: Samantha Stosur captured her first career WTA title when she defeated Francesca Schiavone to win the Japan Open. The Australian, who dashed Caroline Wozniacki's defence of the title in the semi-finals, chalked up a 7-5 6-1 victory over the fourth seed in just 68 minutes.
Weightlifting: Chinese women champions Li Ping and Wang Mingjuan broke world benchmarks in 53kg and 48kg at China's National Games, but did not set new world records. Their performances will not go down in the record books because the international federation only recognises records set in world, continental and Olympic competitions.
Gymnastics: Marian Dragulescu grabbed gold on the vault to claim his second title at the world championships yesterday. Having tumbled to glory on the floor a day earlier, the Romanian made sure he landed on two feet following both of his vaults to win his fourth world title on the apparatus with an average of 16.575.
Table Tennis: China's Olympic and world champion Zhang Yining married yesterday. Zhang, who won two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics and two at the 2004 Athens Games, wed businessman Xu Wei at a ceremony in a plush Beijing hotel. The 28-year-old is one of China's most decorated champions.
Rugby Union: Winger Zac Guildford's elevation to the All Blacks squad for their end-of-season northern hemisphere tour was tinged with some sadness... his father Robert was not around to see it. The 20-year-old's father died in June. "He will be over the moon," Guildford said. "It was his dream for me to make the All Blacks because he didn't do it himself."