LONDON, England Roberto Mancini saw Manchester City clinch automatic qualification to the group stages of the Champions League and immediately demanded a fresh injection of cash. Arsene Wenger saw his side's season end on a low-key note with a draw against Fulham and promptly heaped more frustration on Arsenal fans by admitting the club [.

LONDON, England Chelsea have announced that Carlo Ancelotti has left the club after a trophyless season at Stamford Bridge. It has long been expected that the Italian would leave the London club, despite winning the Double in his debut campaign in England in 2009/10. And Chelsea confirmed the inevitable decision to part company with [.

TURIN, Italy — Luigi Delneri confirmed on Saturday that as expected he would not be Juventus coach next season after he failed to guide them to either a trophy or barring a miracle a place in European competition next season. The 60-year-old who arrived this season after a successful spell with Sampdoria where he [.

MADRID — Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo broke the La Liga goal-scoring record with his 39th and 40th league goals of the season as Real Madrid hammered relegated Almeria 8-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday. Ronaldo poked home from close range on four minutes for his record-breaking goal to overtake the previous best of 38 [.

LONDON, England Less than three months ago Arsenal were in sight of an unprecedented quadruple. Now that number – four – is again within sight but with an entirely different connotation. If Manchester City win at Bolton on Sunday they will finish third, even if Arsenal win, simultaneously, against Fulham.

LONDON, England AFC Wimbledon won promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Luton at Eastlands. After a goalless 120 minutes, top scorer Danny Kedwell netted the winning kick after Dons keeper Seb Brown saved from Alex Lawless and Jason Walker.

OSLO, Norway — Nearly 100 of Norway's topflight football players went on strike Friday demanding the right to choose their own boots and other equipment. The strike, affecting nine of the league's teams including leader Tromsoe, forced the Norwegian football association to postpone matches scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

LONDON/ZURICH Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president who is standing for re-election admits there is a ground swell of popular support to rehold the 2022 vote won by Qatar The Fifa president Sepp Blatter made the startling disclosure yesterday that he could not rule out a rerun of the voting for the right to host [.

ROME, Italy — Claudio Ranieri has resigned as Roma coach following Sunday's disastrous 4-3 defeat at Genoa, despite having led 3-0. It was the club's fourth defeat in a row and Ranieri then told Italian news agency Ansa he had decided to quit. "I've always thought about the good of Roma and after a game [.

MILAN, Italy — Inter Milan's title charge gained momentum on Saturday as the champions squeezed past Cagliari 1-0 to close the gap on leaders AC Milan. Inter's bitter city rivals can push their lead over their neighbours back out to five points with victory on Sunday at Chievo but the nerazzurri's ninth win in 11 [.

LIMA, Peru Police in Peru say the metal bleachers at a soccer stadium have collapsed right before a youth championship, injuring 117 people. A dozen fans suffered serious injuries. Lima Fire Chief Alfonso Panizo tells RPP radio most of those hurt have minor injuries, but he says 12 seriously injured people have been hospitalized.

PARIS, France — Marseille and Lyon both came from behind to breathe new life into their title challenges on Saturday, with OM beating Sochaux 2-1 and OL overpowering derby rivals Saint-Etienne 4-1. Andre-Pierre Gignac was the match-winner for Marseille at Sochaux, as the defending champions secured a victory that took them up to second place [.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Ashley Young scored his first goal for England as Fabio Capello's side came from behind to beat Denmark 2-1 in a morale-boosting win ahead of their Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales next month. Aston Villa player Young, recently converted from winger to striker, came off the bench to give England victory after [.

MILAN, Italy Internazionale continue to close the gap on neighbours AC at the top of the Serie A table after a breathtaking 5-3 defeat of AS Roma at the San Siro. Wesley Sneijder's third minute goal set the tone for a pulsating game with Samuel Eto'o and Fabio Simplicio also on the first half [...]

WOLVERHAMPTON, England Manchester United suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season in a shock 2-1 loss at bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers. In a top vs bottom clash that all but the most optimistic Wolves fan assumed would be a United walkover, two goals from George Elokobi although Kevin Doyle will try [.

CASA GRANDE, Ar Looking to build on Tuesday's victory over Real Salt Lake, Vancouver Whitecaps FC return to preseason action when they take on Pacific Northwest rivals Seattle Sounders FC at Grande Sports World in Casa Grande, Arizona, on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. PT. Despite being together for less than two weeks, Teitur [.

Manchester United veteran Gary Neville has announced his retirement from football with immediate effect. The 35-year-old, who has made only three Premier League starts this season due to fitness problems and a lack of form, made 602 appearances for United and represented England on 85 occasions. Hailed as "the best English right-back of his generation" by Sir Alex Ferguson, Neville was a member of the famous side that won the FA Youth Cup in 1992 and along with Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, dedicated his entire career to his manager at Old Trafford.

LONDON, England The controversial nature of Arsenal's clash with Everton continued after the game, as Toffees boss David Moyes made the claim that Cesc Fabregas should have been sent off at half time. Everton took a controversial lead when Louis Saha scored despite appearing to be a long way offside.

MANCHESTER, England Wayne Rooney returned to scoring form with two goals in Manchester United's 3-1 Premier League win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Rooney bookended the first half with a goal after just 48 seconds and another in stoppage time. He came into the game with one goal from open play since last [.

BLACKPOOL, England Blackpool boss Ian Holloway will fight the £25,000 fine imposed on the club by the Premier League on 27 January. The Seasiders are to appeal after being penalised for fielding a weakened side at Aston Villa in November. But an "incensed" Holloway believes he is being punished for a precedent which should [.

ROME, Italy — Giampaolo Pazzini scored a brace on his debut as Inter Milan fought back from a two-goal half-time deficit to beat Palermo 3-2 on Sunday. The win kept the champions in the title race following leaders AC Milan's 2-0 win at Catania on Saturday, leaving them nine points behind but with a game [.

LUBUMSASHI, DR Congo Morocco and South africa will host the 2015 and 2017 editions of the Nations Cup respectively Morocco have won the right to stage the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations while South Africa will host the 2017 edition. The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive committee of the Confederation [.

HAMBURG, Germany Substitute Mladen Petric scored in the 65th minute and Hamburg edged Eintracht, 1-0, on Friday at HSH Nordbank Arena to win its third straight Bundesliga match. Hamburg moved up one spot to sixth and level on points with fifth-place Bayern Munich ahead of the weekend matches. Eintracht lost for the third time [.

DOHA, Qatar — Uzbekistan wrote a new chapter in their footballing history on Friday by making the Asian Cup semi-finals for the first time with a tense 2-1 win against Jordan. Both teams were gunning for a maiden last-four berth at the continent's premier football tournament and a brace from Ulugbek Bakaev earned his team [.

DOHA, Qatar Ji Dong-won grabbed a brace as South Korea outclassed India at a wet Al Gharafa Stadium to set up a mouth-watering Asian Cup quarter-final against Iran. Koo Ja-cheol and substitute Son Heung-min also found the back of the net for South Korea, but Cho Kwang-rae's men will be left kicking themselves after [.

MADRID, Spain — Atletico Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-0 on Monday to maintain their hunt for a European place and ease the pressure on coach Quique Sanchez Flores. Recent poor form including a 4-1 thumping by Hercules put Sanchez Flores in the firing line and there were rumours that if they lost to Mallorca and [.

TORONTO, Ont. Toronto FC captain Dwayne De Rosario will not be extending his stay with the Scottish Premier League team he's been training with since December, the club announced Friday. Reported to be unhappy with his TFC contract, De Rosario's future with the club has been the subject of debate and conflicting reports since [.

DOHA, Qatar — Three-time champions Iran swept aside North Korea 1-0 at the Asian Cup Saturday to become the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals in their bid to end a 35-year title drought. Karim Ansari Fard struck the winner in the 62nd minute as Team Melli fought hard to crack a tight North [.

DOHA, Qatar — Jordan dumped three-times champions Saudi Arabia out of the Asian Cup on Thursday with a 1-0 victory courtesy of a goalkeeping howler by Waleed Abdullah. It has been a traumatic few days for Saudi Arabia, whose quest for a first Asian Cup since 1996 got off to a disastrous start when they [.

DOHA, Qatar — An impressive Australia crushed India 4-0 to get their Asian Cup campaign off to a decisive start Monday with red-hot Everton star Tim Cahill collecting two goals. Played at an Al-Sadd Stadium packed with noisy expatriate Indians, a convincing win was needed by the Socceroos to demonstrate their tournament credentials against a [.

BARCELONA, Spain Pedro Rodriquez scored twice as Barcelona made heavy weather of beating promoted Levante 2-1 to move five points clear at the top of La Liga on Sunday. The champions, with 46 points from 17 matches, pulled away from second-placed Real Madrid which visits local rivals Getafe on Monday.