Other soccer stories in brief

Sorensen accepts Hutton's apology

•STOKE City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen has accepted an apology from Alan Hutton after the Tottenham full-back left him nursing two cuts below his right eye. The Danish stopper needed a total of 15 stitches to knit his wounds following the pair's clash in last Sunday's Premier League match at the Britannia Stadium.

And Sorensen, who returned to full training on Friday ahead of tomorrow's trip to Manchester City, admitted he was "very relieved" that Hutton's boot did not cause more serious damage.

But he said: "I accept we are playing football and it is a contact sport. I also accept his apology because I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose. That is the end of it.

QPR have sacked manager Iain Dowie just 12 games into the English Championship season.

Dowie (43) who only took over from previous boss Luigi de Canio in May, leaves Loftus Road with the club lying ninth in the table.

The Scottish FA today opened the door for Nacho Novo to play for Scotland. The Rangers striker has revealed he would "probably" switch allegiance from Spain if called up by George Burley.

Scudamore's faith in 39 steps

•THE controversial plan to play top-flight English league matches overseas could still come to fruition, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said yesterday.

The so-called "39th game" plan, which drew criticism from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was revealed last year with Scudamore calling for an extra round of league fixtures to be played around the globe in cities such as Beijing and Bangkok.

Scudamore compared the plan to the NFL's decision to stage a regular season game between the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

"Globalisation of sport is here, it's been here for a while and this is just the next manifestation of it," Scudamore said at a global sport summit in London yesterday.

"We knew the reaction would be somewhat extreme and we knew it was going to be difficult, maybe not as quite as difficult, but clearly we have been looking at this for some time."

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said clubs had a duty to support the Premier League in trying to grow its global appeal, but the concept of a 39th game still had to be properly worked out.

Ballack and Loew set for talks

•GERMANY captain Michael Ballack has agreed to meet coach Joachim Loew to clear the air after their public row although Chelsea have denied him permission to travel, the German Football Association (DFB) said yesterday.

Loew reacted furiously to comments from Ballack, published earlier this week, suggesting senior players were not being given enough respect in the national team.

The coach said he would insist on Ballack attending a private meeting with him in Germany and the row showed signs of cooling when the DFB announced on Friday that the two men had agreed to the talks after speaking by telephone.

However, it now looks as if Loew will be the one who has to travel if he wants the meeting to go ahead before the squad meets up for Germany's match at home to England next month.

"We received a fax from Chelsea on Friday afternoon, stating that after his foot operation Ballack would not be allowed to travel on medical grounds, the DFB said.

Wenger to speak to Gallas over smoking incident

•ARSENE Wenger has revealed he was once a smoker but his liberal attitude is not expected to spare William Gallas, the Arsenal captain, from a club fine after he was photographed in the small hours of Thursday morning leaving a London nightclub with a cigarette in his mouth.

Wenger will check the authenticity of the pictures and speak to Gallas to remind him of his responsibilities. The French defender was among a host of celebrities at the reopening of the Movida club, which was also attended by the Chelsea players Florent Malouda and Mikel John Obi.

"First I have to speak to Gallas," said Wenger, before he revealed his own experiences as a smoker.

"I did smoke but never a lot and never when I played. After, when I became a young coach, I sometimes had one (cigarette) because my assistant was smoking at three o'clock in the morning when we had lost a big game.

"Gallas has a responsibility as captain and that cannot be accepted," insisted the Arsenal manager.

"It is a public job with public responsibility. But there is smoking and there is smoking. I am sure you had players who were smoking 40 cigarettes a day."

Gallas is due to return to the team for tomorrow's visit to West Ham United after a thigh complaint.

Kinnear extends his contract

•NEWCASTLE United's interim manager Joe Kinnear is to sign a one-month extension to his short-term contract as talks to sell the club continue.

Kinnear's reign was scheduled to end after Tuesday's home game against West Bromwich Albion. But he said: "It's a monthly situation because I know they are in talks - who with, I have no idea. It is just like a rolling contract, one month after another month and then take it from there."

Kinnear said he is revelling in life on Tyneside. He said: "I love it. Its the best thing I have ever done, it really is."

Fifa postpone World Cup decisions

•FIFA's executive committee failed to reach agreement yesterday on the bidding process for the next two unassigned World Cups, delaying its decision on the bid timetable until its next meeting in December.

The executive committee had been due to vote on a proposal by Fifa president Sepp Blatter to run the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments simultaneously.

"The committee gave a positive reaction to the general principle that we open the bidding for the two tournaments together," Blatter told a news conference after the meeting. "But the committee members asked if we could look not only at the proposed advantages but also some of the inconveniences that might arise, and three or four asked to postpone the issue until our next meeting in seven weeks."

South Africa and Brazil were awarded the 2010 and 2014 World Cups under a short-lived rotation system under which Fifa planned to move its flagship tournament in strict rotation from continent to continent. Fifa decided last year to end the rotation policy, opening up the 2018 bidding contest to a much larger field.