Football

Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc said that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had answered his critics by inspiring his team to victory over Chelsea in the Champions League last 16.

Beckenbauer told Bild newspaper's on Sunday edition there was no attempt to buy votes in 2000 to get the World Cup awarded to Germany, a claim echoed by the report by Freshfields law firm that found no proof of any vote buying.

Leicester took a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League as a wonderful strike by Riyad Mahrez sealed a 1-0 at Watford on Saturday that boosted their hopes of a fairytale title triumph.

Infantino, elected to run soccer's world governing body last Friday, flew from Geneva to Bristol by easyJet instead of taking a private plane, which was Blatter's preference.

Beckenbauer, Germany's former World Cup-winning player, was already under pressure to deliver answers over a 6.7 million euro ($7.34 million) payment to FIFA in 2005. With no evidences of vote-rigging, Beckenbauer is now under more pressure.

UEFA on Friday named Theodore Theodoridis as interim general secretary to take over from new FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

UEFA will introduce goal-line technology to its competitions in time for this season's Champions League and Europa League finals, European football's governing body announced on Friday.

Charlie Stillitano, chairman of Relevent Sports, met representatives of five of the biggest Premier League clubs on Tuesday to discuss a new structure for Europe's top club competition.

"He's got to come back before the end of the season, there is no doubt about that," Hodgson said.

Real Madrid star James Rodriguez has been fined 10,400 euros ($11,343) for fleeing from police after being caught speeding at 200 kilometres per hour, a government delegate confirmed on Tuesday.

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane insists he has put Cristiano Ronaldo's outburst at his own teammates behind him as he attempts to turnaround a terrible season for the Spanish giants.

Manchester United manager Van Gaal is wary of asking Rashford to take too much responsibility too soon, but leaving him out against Watford in an EPL clash on Wednesday may well prove impossible.

Blatter congratulated Infantino on being elected his successor as FIFA president following a campaign focused on the need to condemn his scandal-plagued 18-year era to the past.

Gianni Infantino made his name as UEFA's master of ceremonies until scandal forced his boss Michel Platini out of the race for the FIFA presidency.

South African Tokyo Sexwale pulled out of the race to become the next president of FIFA on Friday, announcing in mid-speech that he was suspending his campaign with immediate effect.

FIFA "should be proud" of making money "and should be proud to reinvest" in football, said the acting head of the European confederation UEFA.