Hodgson leaves Liverpool, replaced by Dalglish

LIVERPOOL (AP): Liverpool has replaced manager Roy Hodgson with former player and coach Kenny Dalglish.

The struggling Premier League club made the announcement Saturday and said it was by mutual consent with Hodgson.

Liverpool says "both parties thought it in the best interests of the club that he stand down from his position as team manager. We wish him all the best for the future."

Former Liverpool great Dalglish, who has won titles with the Merseyside club as a player and coach, will take charge for the rest of the season - starting with the FA Cup match at Manchester United on Sunday.

  

French midfielder Vieira ready to retire

PARIS (AP): France's former World Cup winner Patrick Vieira says he could retire at the end of the season.

The 34-year-old Manchester City midfielder told L'Equipe magazine "there is a 50 percent chance" he will finish his career at the Premier League club next June.

Vieira won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship with France. The former Arsenal player joined City last year hoping to make the cut for the 2010 World Cup but was left out by then-France coach Raymond Domenech.

Vieira said he is not angered by his role as a substitute at City and that "being jealous of my teammates would be inappropriate."

  

Three candidates to be Oceania football president

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) - Three candidates are standing to replace suspended FIFA vice president Reynald Temarii as leader of the Oceania Football Confederation.

The OFC says interim leader David Chung from Papua New Guinea and two former New Zealand players Fred de Jong and Frank van Hattum, are nominees for the presidential election next Saturday.

The 11 Oceania member nations will vote at their annual congress being held in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The OFC says it expects FIFA president Sepp Blatter and secretary general Jerome Valcke to attend.

The winning candidate is scheduled to join FIFA's 24-member executive committee at its June congress in Zurich.

   

Uzbekistan beats Qatar 2-0 in opener of Asian Cup

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Uzbekistan scored twice in the second half Friday to beat Qatar 2-0 in the first match of the Asian Cup, dealing a setback to the hosts who had hoped a win on the pitch would compliment their glitzy opening ceremony.

Midfielder Odil Akhmedov gave the Uzbeks the lead in the 58th minute with a booming shot from 30 yards. The Uzbeks, ranked 109th in the FIFA world rankings, struck again in the 76th when an errant pass was intercepted by midfielder Server Djeparov, who scored from just outside the area.

The hosts, the second-lowest ranked side in the 16-team tournament above India, had their chances. Midfielder Fabio Cesar's free kick hit the post just before halftime and then striker Hussain Yaser shot was cleared by Uzbek defender Sakhob Juraev.

"I'm very happy because it was difficult match," Uzbekistan coach Vadim Abramov said. "At the same time, I'm sorry for the Qatari people. They had this big celebration and then to lose. But this is the game."

Uzbekistan came into the match as the favorite, with striker Alexander Geynrikh and midfielder Jasur Khasanov constantly pressing the Qatari defense. However, they lacked clinical finishing early on, with Geynrikh coming closest with a shot off the crossbar.

"I think we have a lot of excellent players," Abramov said. "This is not the maximum we can show. I think we can play better."

Qatar coach Bruno Metsu blamed himself for his team's poor play as well as the pressure of playing in front of more than 37,000 mostly Qatari fans at Khalifa Stadium.

"Today is a very bad entry for our team. We wanted to play a good game and give more things for the people, for everybody," Metsu said. "Today we played a very bad game. I'm sorry for the fans, everybody. Sometimes there is more pressure on the players and they forget many points."

Qatar, which has billed this tournament as test run for the 2022 World Cup, now faces the prospect of an early exit. It already faces immense pressure to show it can host such a big tournament and prove to skeptics that the tiny desert nation can entertain fans for three weeks. Now, its troubled team is under fire.

Everything went as planned ahead of the match, with most fans getting into the stadium easily before being treated to a spectacular fireworks display. But the team, which has struggled to score in recent months, failed to deliver, and disappointed fans started to leave after Uzbekistan's second goal.

"The players were not so good but we can't say they are responsible," Qatari supporter Yossef Hussein said. "The coach is the leader and he should have dealt with the match in a better manner. There were no tactics, no plan, nothing."

Now, Metsu said the team faces a must-win match against an improving China team on Wednesday. Then, it faces a Kuwait team it lost to at last year's Gulf Cup.

"We lost three points but we still have six points left," Cesar said. "We have to play better in the next match. We lost to a good opponent in the field. It was difficult to play against short passes in the midfield. That is where they got their confidence."

  

Match-fixers targeted gambling addicted players

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — If convicted match-fixers are to be believed, cash-carrying gamblers seeking to manipulate games easily found willing accomplices in susceptible players and referees across Europe.

Several witnesses who have testified in Bochum at a trial of four men charged with fraud in what officials have called the biggest match-fixing scandal in Europe have described how they recruited players and referees.

One of their soft targets seemed to be players with a gambling problem and debts. One German player revealed this week that he received €100,000 ($129,600) from a gambler to fix five games in 2009, although he denied manipulating any games.

Rene Schnitzler, whose then-club St. Pauli was in the second division but has since been promoted, said he has been a compulsive gambler since the age of 18.

"There are many players who spend their entire free time in betting shops," a witness identified only as Mario C. told the court.

Ante Sapina, the most notorious witness, told the court that lower-division player Thomas Cichon "was for me the chief figure."

Cichon has been implicated before but has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Sapina was convicted as the mastermind of a match-fixing ring in Germany in 2005 and sentenced to 35 months in prison. He was released early and told the court he resumed betting large sums on manipulated games shortly after the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Prosecutors in Bochum have said they expect to bring charges against Sapina, Mario C. and others shortly. Sapina has been in investigative custody since Nov. 19, 2009.

Sapina has described how he traveled to Sarajevo in September 2009 to meet with a Bosnian referee and arrange for the otherwise meaningless World Cup qualifying match between Finland and Liechtenstein to be fixed.

In exchange for €40,000 ($52,000), referee Novo Panic agreed to make sure two goals would be scored in the second half. The match ended in a 1-1 draw with both goals coming in the second half. One of them was the result of a blatantly wrong penalty, according to Sapina.

Panic and another referee contacted by Sapina have been suspended for life by UEFA, the governing body of European football. UEFA has declined to comment while the case is unfolding.

Prosecutors consider Sapina the major figure in the betting scene and the Croat himself has said he bet an average of €1 million ($1.3 million) a month, placing wagers on 30 games and one fixed match a week.

The various testimonies, however, have failed to clarify how closely connected individual gamblers were. Sapina has said he placed bets for others in Asia.

The Bochum trial is the first to result from a massive probe by prosecutors, who have compiled 14,000 pages of documents and are investigating more than 300 people.

"When you consider that we are investigating against 300 people and that now only four people are standing trial, then it's clear how much more work we have before us," prosecutor Andreas Bachmann said this week.

   

Madrid defender Pepe ruled out with calf injury

MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid says it will be without defender Pepe for up to four weeks because of a torn calf muscle.

The Portugal center back injured his left leg during Thursday's 2-0 Copa del Rey loss to Levante. Madrid advanced to the quarterfinals 8-2 on aggregate to play city rival Atletico Madrid.

Madrid said Friday that Pepe will miss both legs of the Spanish capital derby matchup and Sunday's league game against third-place Villarreal at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

  

Man City completes signing of Dzeko from Wolfsburg

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City has added another attacking option to its already loaded squad by completing the signing of Bosnia striker Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg on a 4 1/2-year deal.

Dzeko had been linked with a move to the Premier League club for weeks and City confirmed the deal on its website Friday.

He joins a team that sits second in the standings and has no shortage of forwards. However, the club is reportedly looking to offload Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz in the January transfer window, which could free up a space for Dzeko alongside Carlos Tevez up front.

City did not disclose financial details of the transfer.

Dzeko said "City are playing for first place in the Premier League and that is what I want."

  

Ex-Nigerian footballer Okafor kills self

LITTLE ELM, Texas (AP) — Uche Okafor, a defender on two Nigerian World Cup teams and a stalwart player for the Kansas City Wizards in the U.S., committed suicide this week at his Dallas-area home, authorities said Friday. He was 43.

Okafor's body was discovered Thursday afternoon by his wife in their house in Little Elm, a town about 30 miles northwest of Dallas, Detective Oscar Hinojosa said. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that he hanged himself in an upstairs hallway.

A friend who could not reach Okafor called Ifeyinwa Okafor, the former star's wife, police said.

"She was at work and she came home and found him," Hinojosa said.

Okafor played on the 1994 Super Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations.

Nigeria reached the second round of the World Cup that year and again in 1998, with Okafor on the team both times. He didn't play in 1994 and played in one match in the first round in 1998, a 3-1 loss to Paraguay after they had beaten Spain and Bulgaria. He didn't play in the second-round loss to Denmark

"We are totally shocked by the news. Uche Okafor was a great player who represented his country at the highest level," said Musa Amadu, acting secretary general of the Nigerian Football Federation.

Okafor was with the Wizards from 1996 to 2000, playing in 119 regular-season games and seven Major League Soccer playoff games. His professional finale came on Oct. 15, 2000, when Kansas City beat the Chicago Fire for its only MLS Cup championship.

When Okafor retired before the 2001 season, he was one of only three Kansas City players to have competed every season since the Wizards' inception in 1996, the team said.

"I'm terribly sad to hear of his passing," said Ron Newman, Wizards manager from 1996 through 1999. "He was a big, strong guy, but he was very pleasant and I found him to be very professional. He was just an absolute gentleman."

"I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of him if I was playing against him," he said. "He took no prisoners. But he was fair in everything he did; fair play and good guy. If he knocked you over, he'd pick you up and dust you down."

Kerry Zavagnin, an assistant coach with Sporting Kansas City — the Wizards changed their name last year — played with Okafor during Kansas City's championship season.

"I'm shocked and saddened," he said. "He was a great teammate and most importantly, he was certainly a great man. This is a sad loss for all of us."

  

Fulham signs midfielder Sidwell from Aston Villa

LONDON (AP) — Fulham has signed Steve Sidwell from Premier League rival Aston Villa on a six-month contract as it tries to shore up its midfield in the January transfer window.

Fulham announced the deal on its website Friday but did not disclose financial details. The club said the initial deal expires at the end of the season, but with an option to extend it for another three years.

Sidwell played for Reading between 2003-07 before moving to Chelsea the following season. He then joined Villa in 2008.

The 28-year-old midfielder said he is "looking forward to training with the squad and help the club make steady progress up the table in the second half of the season."

Fulham is just one point above the relegation zone in 14th place.

  

Birmingham close to signing Miller from Rangers

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Premier League club Birmingham is close to signing Scotland striker Kenny Miller from Rangers, after having a bid accepted by the Scottish club.

Birmingham said Miller has yet to agree to the personal terms offered, but the club is hopeful the striker will want to reunite with manager Alex McLeish, the former Scotland coach.

Birmingham is keen to bolster its attack during the January transfer window and has also made a bid for Tottenham striker Robbie Keane.

The club also has Los Angeles Galaxy and United States striker Edson Buddle on trial during the Major League Soccer offseason.

  

Brazilian player faked own kidnapping

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police say Botafogo midfielder Somalia, who claimed he was briefly abducted on his way to training, made up the story because he was running late.

Police chief Juliana Domingues said footage from the player's building showed him entering around 4 a.m. and leaving at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Somalia had alleged he'd been the victim of a kidnapping at 7:15 a.m. that lasted about two hours.

The club said players can have up to 40 percent of their pay docked for tardiness.

Investigators became suspicious when Somalia contradicted himself on details including the kidnapper's outfit.

Domingues says Somalia will be charged for false reporting of a crime. Botafogo issued a statement saying it is looking into possible punishment.

  

Makino doubtful for Japan in Asian Cup opener

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Injury-plagued Japan was dealt another setback when defender Tomoaki Makino injured his ankle preparing for its Asian Cup opener against Jordan on Sunday.

The Sanfrecce Hiroshima player limped off the pitch on Thursday at Al Ahli Stadium, joining a list of injured players including Gotoku Sakai and Daiki Iwamasa.

Coach Alberto Zaccheroni was counting on the 23-year-old Makino after being forced to play without veterans Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuji Nakazawa, who are also injured.

Makino was quoted on the Asian Football Confederation website as saying it was unclear how "serious" the injury was but that "he will do whatever needs to be done" to get back to full fitness.

  

Bayern coach hints at change in goal

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal has hinted at a possible change of goalkeeper that would promote reserve Thomas Kraft to No. 1.

Van Gaal would not comment Friday on reports in Germany that the 22-year-old Kraft already has been named to take over from Hans-Joerg Butt, who is 36.

"We will wait on that, because I don't want to say anything yet," Van Gaal told German reporters with the team in Doha, Qatar, where it has set up camp to prepare for the second half of the Bundesliga season that starts Jan. 14.

While declining to discuss the subject, Van Gaal said that Kraft needs match practice under pressure.

"He (Kraft) has a great talent and we have to build him up a bit so that he can play under pressure," van Gaal said.

Kraft played in two Champions League games after Bayern had already qualified for the next round but has yet to play in the Bundesliga.

The contracts of both Kraft and Butt run out at the end of the season. Bayern is known to be interested in Schalke and Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

  

Spurs sign South Africa defender Bongani Khumalo

LONDON (AP) — Tottenham has completed the signing of South Africa defender Bongani Khumalo from SuperSport United.

Spurs announced in October that they planned to sign the 23-year-old central defender after he played in all three of South Africa's matches at this year's World Cup and impressed in a trial with the English Premier League club.

Tottenham will reportedly pay a transfer fee of 1.5 million pounds ($2.4 million).

Khumalo could make his debut in Sunday's FA Cup match against Charlton and says he is "looking to learn as fast as I can and do all I can to contribute to this wonderful team."

Tottenham is fourth in the Premier League and has qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

  

Juventus signs Toni to replace injured Quagliarella

TURIN, Italy (AP) — Juventus on Friday signed veteran striker Luca Toni on a free transfer from Genoa to replace injured forward Fabio Quagliarella, who will likely miss the rest of the season.

The club confirmed that Quagliarella suffered a ruptured knee ligament in the 4-1 loss to Parma on Thursday. He will have surgery in the next few days and could be sidelined for up to six months.

Toni, 33, signed a contract until June 2012, Juventus said in a statement. The 33-year-old former Italy international has previously played for clubs including AS Roma and Bayern Munich.

Quagliarella, 27, was taken off after only three minutes in Thursday's game, screaming in pain. The Italy striker is Juventus' leading scorer in Serie A with nine goals.

Also on Friday, Juventus midfielder Felipe Melo received a three-game ban after he was sent off for kicking a Parma defender in the face.

  

Tottenham: A 'good chance' Beckham will join

LONDON (AP) — David Beckham could complete his loan move to Tottenham from the Los Angeles Galaxy over the weekend.

"He could be here on Sunday possibly, if what I'm being told on the grapevine is right," Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said Friday. "The clubs are talking and there is a good chance it will happen."

Redknapp, who said last week that he hoped to sign the former England captain on a two-month loan from the Galaxy, said Beckham is likely to attend the north London club's FA Cup match against Charlton on Sunday.

"Hopefully he will come to the game," Redknapp said. "I'm not 100 percent sure, but he could be here on Sunday."

If Beckham does join this weekend, his first match for Tottenham would likely be Jan. 16 against former club Manchester United.

Beckham previously said the only Premier League team he would consider playing for was United, which he left in 2003 after more than a decade to join Real Madrid.

But Beckham was born and raised in London, training with Tottenham as a schoolboy before joining United.

Spurs have been waiting for the Galaxy to decide whether to let the 35-year-old Beckham move on loan for a third straight northern hemisphere winter.

Beckham wants to join a European club on loan to maintain fitness before the Major League Soccer season starts in March, boosting his chances of being recalled to the England team.

He made the last of his 115 international appearances against Belarus in October 2009 and missed last year's World Cup because of an Achilles injury at AC Milan.

Beckham spent the past two winters in Italy on loan at Milan, while his Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan did the same last year at English club Everton.

Redknapp wants to use Beckham's experience to help a team challenging for a second straight top-four Premier League finish and through to the knockout stages of the Champions League in its debut season.

  

Egypt cancels Danish camp amid security fears

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's football association says Egypt has withdrawn an invitation to the Danish Under-21 team to train in Cairo, citing security concerns.

Danish association spokesman Lars Behrendt says the Egyptian federation "could not guarantee" the Danes' security in the midst of persistent anger among some Muslim groups over Danish newspapers' publication of cartoons depicting Muhammad.

Behrendt said Friday there were "absolutely no concrete threat" against Denmark's under-21 team.

The Danes will travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates instead. The Jan. 15-24 camp includes games against China and Qatar.

Denmark will host the under-21 European Championships in June.