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Former Bayern coach Magath takes over at Wolfsburg
BERLIN: Felix Magath has been appointed chief coach and sporting director at VfL Wolfsburg, the Bundesliga club said on Wednesday.
Magath won back-to-back league and cup doubles with Bayern Munich in 2005 and 2006 but was sacked by the Bavarians in February this year following a poor run.
The former VfB Stuttgart boss replaces Klaus Augenthaler, who was dismissed after Wolfsburg narrowly avoided relegation on the last day of the season.
"In Magath we're getting one of the most renowned figures in the German game," Wolfsburg chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said in a statement issued by the club.
British target Australia's head swim coach ahead of 2012
SYDNEY: Australian head swimming coach Alan Thompson has been targeted by Britain as part of an international poaching raid in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics, reports said yesterday.
British Swimming intends to hire six world-class coaches on salaries more than three times the going rate for a top-class coach in Australia to direct its elite program between 2008 and 2012, according to British media reports.
Bill Sweetenham has announced that he will step down as Britain's performance director after next year's Beijing Games, leaving the next Olympic host in need of new leadership.
Reports said the recruitment drive began last March at the world championships in Melbourne, where a British scout approached a number of coaches from different countries, including several Australians.
Thompson said he would be meeting with British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes in Manchester on Sunday to discuss the head coach's position.
Thompson's contract with Swimming Australia ends after next year's Olympics.
Blatter awarded third term as president of FIFA
ZURICH: Sepp Blatter was given a third term as president of world soccer's governing body by acclamation after standing as the only candidate at yesterday's FIFA Congress.
"I accept this mandate and I thank you for your continuing trust in me," he told delegates from FIFA's 208 member associations who gave him a four-year term until 2011.
Earlier the 71-year-old Swiss had told delegates world soccer was facing four evils that had to be stopped - doping, corruption, cheating and racism.
He also said that the growing trend of football-related matters being taken to civil courts had to end with Congress passing a resolution to its statutes designed to stop disputes being settled in ordinary courts of law.
"We are strong enough ourselves to settle our own affairs," he said.
He also confirmed that there was no doubt that South Africa would host the 2010 World Cup finals.
(China Daily 06/01/2007 page23)
