Washington  - US football fans, media and officials named US men's national team goalkeeper Tim Howard and US women's national team midfielder Carli Lloyd as the 2008 athletes of the year, according to a statement released Thursday.

The awards were the first ever for the two athletes, US Soccer said.

Howard is goalkeeper for English Premier League club Everton FC and the US national team.

Lloyd started all six games at the Beijing Olympics in August.

Hamburg - Two-time winners Sevilla and fellow Spanish side Racing Santander both crashed out of the UEFA Cup, while England's Tottenham Hotspur were among teams to advance to the last 32 Thursday

Sevilla, winners of the competition in 2006 and 2007, slipped to a 1-0 Group C defeat at Sampdoria who earn a place in the knockout stage.

Germany's VfB Stuttgart clinched the third spot in the group by downing group winners Standard Liege 3-0 to bag one of the six remaining places at stake on the night.

Wolfsburg, Germany - VfL Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath has filed an appeal against a 10,000-euro (12,700 dollars) fine imposed by the German football federation DFB for insulting a referee.

The fine was imposed last month by the federation's control panel for "unsporting behaviour."

The coach appeared at a personal hearing at the federation last week and has now filed an appeal to a DFB court, the Bundesliga club said on Thursday.

Zurich  - Liberian footballer Melvin King has been banned for five months after submitting a positive doping test at a World Cup qualifying match earlier this year, the ruling body FIFA said on Thursday.

King tested positive for a glucocorticoid at a June 21 qualifier with Senegal and didn't have a therapeutic use exemption for the substance. He is banned from October 2, the day he was originally suspended, until March 1, 2009, from all football matches.

London - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hit out at Real Madrid again on Thursday after the Spanish club claimed they had done a deal to sign winger Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer.

The United manager was deeply unhappy at Real's conduct over the summer, when they applied consistent pressure to try to sign the freshly crowned European Footballer of the Year.

And he was clearly furious about comments from Real director Pedro Trapote suggesting the deal was done.

London - Findings of a Football Association inquiry published on Thursday have condemned Manchester United assistant coach Mike Phelan as an unreliable witness.