Hiddink: Russian soccer fans have started a petition to retain Guus Hiddink as national coach despite the team's failure to qualify for next year's World Cup finals. Fans can register and send their pleas via a special website (www.Hiddink2012.ru).
In Italy: The president of Italian third division soccer side Potenza was among nine people arrested in connection with an investigation into possible match-fixing and illegal betting, police said yesterday. Giuseppe Postiglione, who has not yet been charged, was taken into custody after police probed 10 matches and potential mafia links.
Wigan: Wigan players have agreed to refund the club's travelling fans after Sunday's humiliating 9-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. "As a group of professionals we were embarrassed by the way we performed ... and this is something we feel we owe the fans," captain Mario Melchiot said.
In Italy: Serie B - Cesena vs Torino 1-1. Prima Divisione A - Como vs Lumezzane 2-1.
In England: The Championship - Preston vs Newcastle 0-1.
MFA Division Three: Fgura vs Luqa 0-1; Siġġiewi vs Marsa 0-4.
Nascar: Jimmie Johnson won an unprecedented fourth consecutive Sprint Cup points championship on Sunday. Johnson, driving a Chevrolet, came into the final race of the season at the Homestead Miami Speedway with a commanding lead in the championship and finished the race in fifth. The 400 mile race was won by Denny Hamlin in a Toyota, who finished ahead of Jeff Burton's Chevrolet by a wide margin. Kevin Harvick finished third, also in a Chevrolet.
Rugby: Former All Black Jonah Lomu returned to rugby on Sunday with French semi-professional side Marseille-Vitrolles. Once the most feared man in world rugby, the 34-year-old, who played 63 tests for New Zealand between 1994 and 2002 before his career was cut short by kidney disease, returned in a 63-18 win over Montmelian in the equivalent of the third division. Lomu, who burst into the limelight at the 1995 World Cup, signed a two-year contract for the Marseille side earlier this year.
Cycling: Liquigas rider Gianni Da Ros has been banned for 20 years for doping, the Italian Olympic Committee said in a statement yesterday.Da Ros, who only recently turned professional,was one of 11 people arrested by police in March after a long-running investigation into doping across Italian sport. Top riders Danilo Di Luca and Riccardo Ricco were also among a raft of Italian cyclists to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in recent years.
Cricket: Herschelle Gibbs has been recalled to the South Africa squad for the remainder of the one-day series against England. The top-order batsman will replace all-rounder Jacques Kallis who has been ruled out due to a fractured rib. Gibbs, 35, who has scored 8060 runs in his 245 ODIs, last played a limited overs match for his country when he faced England during the Champions Trophy in September this year.
Athletics: The German Athletics Federation (DLV) recognised yesterday a women's high jump record dating back to 1936 after the Nazi party had refused to accept it because the athlete, Gretel Bergmann, was a Jew. Bergmann had broken the German record with a jump over 1.60 metres but the Nazi sports authorities refused to recognise it and banned her from competing in that year's Berlin Olympics. Bergmann, 95, moved to the United States in 1937 where she still lives with her 99-year-old husband, the DLV said.