Mexico City  - Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was sacked Thursday as Mexico's football coach, has good reason not to get too upset about the setback: the Swede earned some 7 million dollars in 10 months with the national team, the Mexican sports daily Record reported Friday.

"Sven-Goran Eriksson became the most costly investment in the history of Mexican football," the daily said.

London  - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will have use all his managerial skills this weekend after Dimitar Berbatov added to his striking woes by being ruled out for two weeks with an ankle injury.

The Bulgaria striker suffered the injury in the defeat against Fulham two weeks ago and will therefore miss Sunday's clash with Aston Villa and both legs of the club's Champions League quarter-final with Porto.

United are already without the suspended Wayne Rooney, while Ferguson will assess the fitness of Carlos Tevez after his return from Argentina's 6-1 defeat in Bolivia in midweek.

Hamburg  - The German football federation DFB believes FIFA will take no action against Lukas Podolski over a pitch altercation with captain Michael Ballack during Germany's 2-0 victory over Wales in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.

Podolski struck out a hand which made slight contact with Ballack's cheek during an angry exchange of words in a second-half incident.

A DFB spokesman said Friday it did not believe football's world governing body FIFA would punish the Bayern Munich striker for unsporting behaviour as the referee took no action at the time.

London, Apr. 3: Former England international Alan Shearer has laid down the law at Newcastle.

Shearer has hit his players with a series of strict rules.

According to The Sun, he has banned all nights out on the Toon after games, told his squad they must stay behind after training and eat lunch together as a team and challenged anyone to say if they do not like the new regime — and said they can go if they are unhappy.

Mexico City  - The Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson was sacked Thursda

London  - Alan Shearer was unveiled as Newcastle United manager until the end of the season on Thursday, saying England striker Michael Owen can help the team to avoid relegation from the English Premier League.

Shearer reiterated that he would be at the club for eight games only and admitted that he was taking on a tough job.

Newcastle are third from bottom in the league and play third- placed Chelsea on Saturday in Shearer's first game.