Buenos Aires  - Diego Maradona is an expert in extremes, and he got another dose of them as Argentina coach in recent days, with glory in Saturday's thrashing over Venezuela and disaster in Wednesday's historic and humiliating 6-1 loss to Bolivia.

The current situation raised uncomfortable questions as to national football legend Maradona's ability to lead Argentina in the South American qualifiers towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Madrid  - Veteran striker Frederic Kanoute told the Spanish media on Thursday afternoon how "delighted" he was to have extended his contract with Sevilla until 2012.

"Both parties wanted to reach an agreement as soon as possible," he said, "and that is why everything has been agreed so quickly. I am delighted to stay here. This demonstrates my commitment to Sevilla."

The new deal, agreed earlier on Thursday, means that Kanoute will be a Sevilla player until the age of 34, although he insisted that "I am not sure about retiring at that age."

Berlin - Bundesliga leaders Hertha Berlin hope Andrey Voronin will be in the team to face Borussia Dortmund on Saturday despite the striker being diagnosed with a broken nose.

Hertha general manager Dieter Hoeness said Thursday Voronin broke his nose in Ukraine's 2-1 defeat to England in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday evening.

Voronin, who is on loan from Liverpool, suffered the injury when he was accidently struck by England captain John Terry's arm.

Wolfsburg, Germany - Bu

Warsaw  - Former Polish sports minister Tomasz Lipiec went on trial Thursday on five criminal charges including corruption and fraud in 2004-2007.

Lipiec, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, faces up to 10 years in prison on conviction, the Polish Press Agency PAP reported. He did not comment to reporters and the trial was closed to media.

Prosecutors did not reveal the total amount of alleged bribes involved, but the amount is "at least 100,000 zloty (29,587 dollars)", according to the weekly Wprost.

Trier, Germany  - Players at German fourth-division side Eintracht Trier had to train in the early hours of the morning this week as punishment following a defeat, it was reported Thursday.

Coach Mario Basler, a former Germany international, was so annoyed at the 3-0 defeat at SC Verl he put his team through their paces after they arrived back home well after midnight.

The training session began at 1.33 a. m. and ended at 2.17 a. m., the Trierischer Volksfreunde newspaper reported under the headline "No April Fools' Day joke: Training at