Lotina: Espanyol coach Miguel Angel Lotina announced he will be giving up his post after his team staged a dramatic escape from relegation in their final league match of the season. "I think it is better to leave now at a moment of celebration rather than delay things for too long," Lotina said on Saturday. Fellow strugglers Alaves looked as if they were the team that would avoid the drop after they took a 1-0 lead against Deportivo, but Espanyol midfielder Ferran Corominas scored a stoppage-time strike that kept the Catalans in the top flight and sent the Basque team into the second division.
Mancini: Inter coach Roberto Mancini said yesterday that recent Italian Serie A championships had been "fixed". Speaking on the final day of the season, Mancini was quoted as saying: "It is difficult to make an evaluation when you play in fixed championships, in fact it is impossible. It is a very serious matter. The most serious ever heard of in the history of world football."
Cottbus: Energie Cottbus will return to the Bundesliga next season after beating TSV 1860 Munich 3-1 yesterday in the final second division match of the season. They join VfL Bochum and Alemannia Aachen, who had already clinched promotion. Cottbus will be the only team from formerly Communist eastern Germany in the Bundesliga. Hertha Berlin are based in the western half of the German capital.
Real Madrir: Former world rally champion Carlos Sainz and construction magnate Juan Miguel Villar Mir have joined forces in a bid to win the Real Madrid presidential election which takes place on July 2. Villar Mir, a former Real director under Ramon Mendoza in the early 1990s, would take up the president's post if the bid was successful while Sainz would become vice-president.
Costa Rica: Costa Rica believe they can pull off an upset when they face hosts Germany in the World Cup's opening game on June 9. "We have a clear chance of winning, not just participating," forward Cristian Bolanos said. The Costa Rican side is spending a week in a beach resort in the Pacific Coast town of Conchal because coach Alexandre Guimaraes believes a relaxed atmosphere will allow them to recharge batteries in preparation for the World Cup, team spokesman Marvin Hidalgo said.