Mexico City  - Mexican Javier Aguirre was Friday designated to become Mexico's new football coach, replacing the Swede, Sven- Goran Eriksson.

Aguirre - the former coach of La Liga clubs Osasuna and Atletico Madrid, among others - coached Mexico for the 2002 World Cup.

In a brief statement the Mexican Football Federation said Aguirre, 50, would be formally presented to the media as coach on April 16.

Bielefeld, Germany - Goals from Jefferson Farfan and Kevin Kuranyi gave Schalke 04 a 2-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld in their first match since the dismissal of coach Fred Rutten eight days ago.

Peru striker Farfan got on the end of a cross from Christian Pander to head Schalke ahead just before half-time, and Kuranyi notched the second three minutes into stoppage time.

The win was a boost for troubled Schalke who are now being coached by caretaker trainers Mike Buskens and Youri Mulder.

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.