Ferguson: Rangers and Scotland midfielder Barry Ferguson is primed to make his first appearance at Ibrox since returning to the club from Blackburn Rovers. Ferguson is in the squad for today's Scottish Premier League match with third-placed Hibernian and is ready to take his place in the side, manager Alex McLeish said yesterday. "I don't think there's any doubt he is ready to start but obviously we've got to consider an extremely impressive performance in the semi-final by everybody before we decide on the final line up," McLeish said referring to their last match - a 7-1 win over Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup.
Keane: Manchester United captain Roy Keane says he will be retiring as a player at the end of the 2005-06 season. The combative Ireland midfielder, who signed a four-year deal in 2002, told reporters yesterday: "When I signed the contract I believed that would be my last playing contract - and I still believe that would be the case." Keane moved to Old Trafford in 1993 from Nottingham Forest and has gone on to play 460 times for United, scoring his 50th goal for them in last weekend's 2-0 win over Birmingham City.
Mido: Egypt's FA are ready to forgive Tottenham striker Mido if he apologises for the lack of discipline that has seen him excluded from the national team since July. "We've no objections providing he apologises to the people of Egypt and the association," Essam Abdel-Moneim, the Egyptian FA's chairman, said. Mido, 21, was axed by Egypt's former coach Marco Tardelli after claiming he had a groin injury, but he then played in a friendly for his club Roma within 24 hours of a World Cup qualifying match at home to Cameroon last September. A Tottenham spokesman confirmed that Mido, who has 34 caps, is returning to Cairo this weekend and the Standard said he will make a public plea to the Egyptian people for a second chance.
Simonet: Claude Simonet will step down as president of the French Soccer Federation (FFF) yesterday after overseeing the most glorious decade in its history. Simonet, elected to the job in February 1994, will almost certainly be replaced by retired teacher Jean-Pierre Escalettes, who previously chaired the amateur section of the FFF. Asked what was his best memory as the head of French soccer, Simonet, 76, said: "1998, of course. It was extraordinary to see France so full of joy and brotherhood."
Match-fixing claim: Austrian police are to launch an investigation into whether a goalkeeper at Austrian club SW Bregenz was involved in a match-fixing scandal that has rocked neighbouring Germany. Austrian police said referee Robert Hoyzer, the man at the centre of Germany's biggest match-fixing scandal in 30 years, told German authorities there was a link between his accomplices and Bregenz, who are bottom of the Austrian first division. "There is the suspicion that there were links between this group and Bregenz and that in particular a goalkeeper was involved," a police statement said.
In England: League One - Bristol City vs Walsall 0-1. League Two - Southend vs Scunthorpe 0-0.