Appeal failed: Lithuania midfielder Saulius Mikoliunas has failed in his bid to overturn a two-match ban from UEFA for diving. UEFA's appeals body announced yesterday it was backing the original sanction handed down by its disciplinary body last month. Mikoliunas was given the ban after television replays showed him diving to win a penalty during his country's 3-1 defeat in a Euro 2008 qualifying match away to Scotland.

Forssell: Finland striker Mikael Forssell has been left out of Roy Hodgson's 22-man squad named yesterday for this month's Euro 2008 qualifier in Belgium. Birmingham City player Forssell, who will be out of action for at least a month after a hernia operation, will miss the Oct. 13 qualifier in Brussels.

River Plate: River Plate's extraordinary run of ups and downs continued on Wednesday when they were thumped 4-1 by Argentinos Juniors in the Argentine championship. The defeat came less than one week after River scored three times in the last 20 minutes with nine men to knock Brazil's Botafogo out of the Copa Sudamericana and reach the quarter-finals. In the last month, Daniel Passarella's team have also thrashed Velez Sarsfield 5-0 and lost 4-1 to promoted Tigre.

Bergodi quits: Italian Cristiano Bergodi quit on Thursday as Rapid Bucharest coach, minutes after his team failed to reach the UEFA Cup group stage, a club spokesman said. Rapid drew 2-2 at home in their first round, second leg game against German side Nuremberg and were eliminated on the away goals rule after a 0-0 draw in the first leg. "Bergodi said he had decided to quit and that his decision was final," spokesman Cristian Costache told Reuters.

Fans detained: About 20 Dutch fans were detained following drunken disturbances in the centre of Florence ahead of last night's UEFA Cup match between Fiorentina and Groningen, Italian media said.