Campbell unfit: England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 suffered another blow yesterday when Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp said recalled central defender Sol Campbell was unfit. Campbell looks set to join Steve McClaren's growing list of injured and unavailable players. Redknapp said: "Yes, of course (he is injured). He won't play for England. No way. He can't play for England. No chance." The 32-year-old Campbell, whose form with Portsmouth in the last year earned him his chance after leaving Arsenal, is now set to miss the qualifiers at Wembley against Israel next Saturday and Russia four days later.
Krstajic out: Serbia centre-back Mladen Krstajic will miss their Euro 2008 Group A qualifier at Portugal on Sept. 12 with a knee injury. The Schalke defender, suspended for Serbia's home match with Finland on Saturday, could be out for up to six weeks after damaging knee ligaments in his team's 1-1 draw with Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen on Friday. "The scan showed an injury that will put Krstajic out of action for at least four weeks and we hope everybody else will be fit," spokesman Aleksandar Boskovic said.
Jail for match fixers: An Israeli court sentenced a former referee and an ex-player and coach to three years in jail yesterday after they were found guilty of match fixing. Tel Aviv magistrates' court jailed former referee Bariq Tahsin after he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime and of receiving bribes to fix the results of three matches in which he officiated in 1999 and 2000. Eli Cohen, a former coach and player for Hapoel Tel Aviv, who was convicted of bribing officials to help fix results in 11 matches, will also serve three years.
Coach quits: Mircea Rednic resigned as coach of Dinamo Bucharest yesterday, days after the Romanian champions failed to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. Following an emergency board meeting, Dinamo Bucharest had accepted Rednic's decision to quit, the team said. Dinamo lost 3-1 at home to Lazio in the third qualifying round of the Champions League and were eliminated 4-2 on aggregate. On Saturday, Dinamo lost 1-0 at home to Gloria Bistrita.
World Cup: Fiji and Solomon Islands progressed to the last four of the first stage of the Oceania World Cup qualifiers after winning their respective matches last weekend. Fiji join New Caledonia as the qualifiers from Group A for the semi-finals of the South Pacific Games while the Solomon Islands move ahead from Group B. The football tournament at the South Pacific Games is being used by the Oceania Football Confederation as the first stage of its 2010 World Cup qualifiers.