FA charge: Arsenal and Hull have been charged with failing to control their players after a fracas in last week's Premier League game. Players from both teams became involved in a mass scuffle after Arsenal's midfielder Samir Nasri appeared to tread on the foot of Hull's Richard Garcia in the second half at the Emirates.
Serie A: Fiorentina's Serie A home game against second-placed Milan will take place on Jan. 27 at 20.45 after the original match was snowed off last weekend. Udinese vs Cagliari has also been re-arranged for Jan. 27 at 18.00. The postponed games between Bologna and Atalanta and Genoa and Bari have been rescheduled for Jan. 20 at 18.00.
Ukraine: Ukraine have not renewed the contract of coach Olexiy Mykhaylychenko after the national team failed to qualify for next year's World Cup in South Africa. Ukraine FA president Hryhory Surkis said last month he wanted Romanian Mircea Lucescu, the coach of UEFA Cup winners Shakhtar Donetsk, to replace Mykhaylychenko. He said he would consult Shakhtar's billionaire owner Rinat Akhmetov.
Barca: Barcelona vice-president Jaume Ferrer plans to stand for the presidency of the club in an election due to be held next year. "I have the conviction and desire to present a candidacy to win the election," Ferrer said. Alfons Godall, another of the club's five vice-presidents, is also planning to mount a bid to replace Joan Laporta when he steps down at the end of June.
Ban extended: Sunderland defender Michael Turner had his three-match ban extended to four games by the FA. The club felt the initial suspension imposed after he received a straight red card in the Premier League defeat at Manchester City on Saturday was excessive and appealed. The FA, though, rejected the appeal and used their discretion to increase the punishment to four games.
Bettega: Juventus appointed former player and vice-president Roberto Bettega as deputy director general yesterday in a bid to halt their slide in form. Bettega, who will act as a bridge between under pressure coach Ciro Ferrara and recently named president Jean Claude Blanc, left as a director after the 2006 match-fixing scandal although he was not implicated in any wrongdoing.
Scotland: Craig Levein was named as his country's new coach yesterday. The 45-year-old replaces George Burley who was sacked in November after winning just three out of his 14 games in charge and missing out on a play-off spot for the World Cup finals. Levein, who won 16 caps for Scotland during a playing career spent mostly at Hearts, had spells in charge of Raith, Leicester and Hearts as a manager before joining Dundee United in 2006.
Ligue 1: Le Mans vs Monaco 1-1; FC Lorient vs Valenciennes 3-2; Lyon vs Montpellier 1-2; Marseille vs Auxerre 0-2; Nancy vs Lille 0-4; Nice vs Boulogne-sur-Mer 2-2; Paris SG vs Grenoble 4-0; Sochaux vs Stade Rennes 2-0; Toulouse vs Bordeaux 1-2.
Basket, NBA: Kobe Bryant scored 40 points to help the Los Angeles Lakers survive a nail-biting finish and defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-108. The Lakers made six consecutive free-throws in the final 90 seconds and breathed a collective sigh of relief when Russell Westbrook missed a three-pointer in the final seconds.
Tennis: Larry Ellison, chief executive of software company Oracle, is the new owner of the Indian Wells tennis tournament. Ellison's Tennis Ventures purchased the entire assets from the previous ownership group. The Indian Wells tournament prides itself on being the most attended tennis event outside the four majors and will be held from March 8 next year.
Sports awards: US Open tennis champion Juan Martin del Potro has been voted Argentina's sports personality of the year. Del Potro, who upset Roger Federer in the US Open final, ended the year ranked fifth. He also won tournaments in Auckland and Washington.
Winter games: A coalition of female ski jumpers vowed not to give up their bid to be included in the Olympics, despite a refusal by Canada's highest court this week to hear their case. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal that Canada did not have the legal power to force the IOC to hold both men's and women's ski jumping events in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Ski jumping is one of the few events in either the Winter or Summer Games that does not have competitions for both men and women.
Boxing: The World Boxing Organisation welterweight title bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao will not go ahead because of Mayweather's demands for Olympic-style dope testing procedures, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said. Arum said using blood tests for the scheduled March 13 clash was unprecedented for professional fights in Las Vegas. "As far as I'm concerned, the fight is off," he said.