London, Nov. 26 : Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has apologized to coach Alex Ferguson for diving to try to win a penalty during the match against Villarreal.

The Manchester United striker fell when Villarreal’s Fabricio Fuentes went to challenge him.

Cologne- Bundesliga club Cologne confirmed on Tuesday night that they are plan to bring their long lost son Lukas Podolski back home to the club from Bayern Munich.

Club president Wolfgang Overath and general manager Michael Meier said that Cologne have talked with the relevant parties and now wait for a signal from Munich on the future of the Germany striker.

"We have done our homework and will do everything to bring Lukas back home," Overath told Cologne's annual members meeting amid thunderous applause.

Meier said: "Talks were held recently between Cologne and Bayern Munich and between Cologne and Lukas. Now we are waiting for a signal."

Hamburg - Zenit St Petersburg and Serie A giants Juventus played out a scoreless draw in a Champions League Group H encounter Tuesday.

Juventus, already qualified thanks to back-to-back wins against Real Madrid, dominated possession at the Petrovsky stadium in St Petersburg, but Zenit came closest to scoring when Pavel Pogrebnyak saw his long-range shot come back off a post.

Danny, who earlier saw a goalbound shot blocked, almost snatched victory and all three points for the home side close to the end by his shot went narrowly wide.

Hamburg  - The German Bundesliga is making more money from jersey sponsorship than another other football league in Europe, the European Jersey Report
2008/09 survey carried by the market research group Sport und Markt and released Tuesday has revealed.

The 18 clubs in Germany's top flight reaped a total of 102.9 million euros (130.5 million dollars) for the current season from jersey sponsorship, the first time the Bundesliga has broken through the 100-million-euro barrier.

Johannesburg  - The South African Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 2010 World Cup said Tuesday that they were happy with arrangements for both the World Cup and next year's Confederations Cup.

Addressing a media briefing during a LOC board meeting the LOC CEO Danny Jordaan said that they were happy with the way things are going.

"Since ticket sales started for the Confederations Cup on the weekend, we have already had 30,000 hits on the website. It is too early to say how the sales are going at other outlets, but we are hoping the stadiums will be full."

Jordaan said that the Board had approved a budget of 4.018 billion Rand (386.5 million dollars) for the two tournaments.

Zagreb- Branko Ivankovic has quit as coach of quit Croatian football champions Dinamo Zagreb, two days before a big UEFA Cup game against Spartak Moscow, the club said on Tuesday.

"We talked daily and decided that the path we were heading is not good so we decided mutually to go separate ways. We just weren't happy - neither the club nor the coach," Dinamo's sport director Zoran Mamic told journalists in Zagreb.