Tehran  - Ali Daei was dismissed as Iran coach after a 2-1 home defeat against Saudi Arabia in a World Cup qualifier, ISNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Other news agencies also confirmed Daei's dismissal, including official news agency IRNA.

ISNA had earlier Sunday quoted Iranian Football Federation (FFI) president Ali Kafashian as saying that an emergency FFI session was held in this regard.

Johannesburg  - With less than three months to go to the opening game in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, and only one-third of the tickets sold, FIFA is pulling out all the stops to fill seats, FIFA general-secretary Jerome Valcke said Sunday.

Of the 640,000 tickets available for the eight-nation "Championship of Champions", held in the World Cup host nation a year before the big event, FIFA has sold less than
200,000 tickets so far, Valcke told reporters in Johannesburg.

London, Mar. 29 : England football coach Fabio Capello has hailed forward Wayne Rooney as the ''crazy joker in the pack''.

Rooney banished all memories of his red card last Saturday with a stunning two-goal show, reports news of the world.

The England boss called Roo a ''crazy man'' in the build-up to yesterday''s 4-0 trouncing of Slovakia following the Manchester United star''s sending off at Fulham.

London, Mar. 29 : Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has revealed that to cheer themselves up after recent defeats, the players have made their own lookalike hall of fame in the dressing room of the Carrington training ground.

Standing tall in goal for the Reds is Rodney Trotter (Van der Sar) from Only Fools And Horses. In front of him, Star Wars freak Jar Jar Binx (Ferdinand), Rocky IV slugger Ivan Drago (Vidic), and the Gingerbread Man (Brown). Holding steady in the middle is Corrie''s Chesney (Scholes), George Michael (Ronaldo) and a Trekkie Klingon
(Nani).

Madrid - The Spanish media was full of praise on Sunday for the country's national football team after the previous day's hard-fought 1-0 defeat of Turkey.

There was agreement across Spain that not only is Vicente del Bosque's side one of the strongest on Planet Football at the moment - but also that it is the best ever national side in the 100-year history of the Spanish federation.

The statistics surrounding "La Seleccion" speak for themselves: