Bellamy: Wales forward Craig Bellamy is very unlikely to return to Newcastle from his loan spell at Celtic after his spat with manager Graeme Souness. Bellamy moved to the Scottish champions in January after accusing Souness of lying in their row over the Welshman's willingness to play out of position for the club. Asked about the chances of Bellamy returning to St James' Park, club chairman Freddy Shepherd said: "It will be very difficult. Obviously, you can't call the manager a liar and hope to walk back in the door."
Borussia saved: Debt-ridden Borussia Dortmund won a stay of execution yesterday when investors in the fund that controls their home stadium approved a rescue plan. The plan will allow Borussia to buy back a stake in the Westfalen stadium, which they had sold to a unit of German bank Commerzbank. They had been unable to pay rent for the stadium since the start of the year and faced insolvency.
Savage: Blackburn Rovers' Wales midfielder Robbie Savage announced his international retirement yesterday as national coach John Toshack named his squad for their next two World Cup qualifiers. Savage said: "I feel the time is right, I want to spend more time with my young family and concentrate fully on my career with Blackburn Rovers." The combative 30-year-old midfielder has been capped 39 times by Wales and scored twice since making his debut in 1995.
Blind: Ajax Amsterdam named former Netherlands defender Danny Blind as manager yesterday in place of Ronald Koeman. Koeman left the club last month after Ajax were knocked out of the UEFA Cup. They lie third in the Dutch first division, eight points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven. Blind, 43, spent 13 seasons at Ajax, playing around 500 matches as a cultured defender before hanging up his boots in 1999.
Nakata: Captain Hidetoshi Nakata will return to the Japan squad for the first time in a year for this month's World Cup qualifiers against Iran and Bahrain. Japan coach Zico also named Junichi Inamoto and Shinji Ono yesterday in a 26-man squad for the visit to Iran on March 25 and the home clash with Bahrain five days later. The Europe-based trio have made successful returns from lengthy injury lay-offs. Fiorentina's Nakata has not played for his country since a World Cup qualifier against Singapore in March last year due to a serious groin injury.
Dundee United: Dundee United manager Ian McCall left the club by mutual consent yesterday after they slumped to the bottom of the Scottish Premier League. Assistant Gordon Chisholm has been installed as caretaker manager. McCall, 40, played for Queen's Park, Dunfermline, Rangers, Bradford, Dundee, Falkirk and Clydebank.
In Italy: Serie B - Ternana vs Catania 0-0. Serie C - Padova vs Avellino 3-2.
¤ UEFA will try to persuade referee Anders Frisk to return to the game after the Swede said he was retiring because of death threats to him and his family. "It's obvious that our first reaction was of solidarity and compassion," William Gaillard, spokesman for European soccer's ruling body, said yesterday. "At the same time (refereeing officials) at UEFA are in contact with Anders and will try to convince him to go back to refereeing because we need people of his calibre and quality." Frisk is one of Europe's top referees and had been earmarked for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.