Munich - Germany captain Michael Ballack has defended his recent criticism on coach Joachim Loew, naming it a wakeup call.

"Sometimes you have to go public deliberately in order to shake
things up. There were a few irritations during and after the European
championships," Ballack told German pay-TV network Premiere ahead of
the European Champions League match of his club Chelsea at Girondins
Bordeaux on Wednesday.

Ballack said "you can't discuss everything internally," insisted he
"issued his opinion in decent way" and said "I didn't want to attack
anyone."

Zurich- The global television rights sale for the 2010 football World Cup has been completed ahead of schedule with a deal in Nigeria, the governing body FIFA said on Wednesday.

FIFA said in a statement that a contract with the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) will ensure free-to-air TV coverage and radio broadcasts of all 64 World Cup games in South Africa.

World Cup organizing committee chief Danny Jordaan welcomed the announcement as "another major milestone" which was completed "well ahead of schedule.

Rome - After weeks of embarrassing results, Roma seem to be over one of their worst ever season starts, which practically cut them off from the race for the Serie A title.

The red-yellows from the capital were again expected to be among the toughest opponents for title holders Inter Milan after coming second in 2007 and 2008, but their reputation and hopes were badly dented by six defeats in the first nine games.

With a 16-point deficit from the leading champions after 13 games, Roma had to cut down their ambitions at home.

But they still have good hopes to do well in the Champions League.

Hamburg - The fans loved it, some of the players as well, but the ruling German football body DFB was not amused about a referee showing two yellow cards simultaneously during a second division match on the weekend.

On Sunday, referee Thomas Metzen dug deep into his shirt pockets and threw up his hands with a yellow card in each one to book Mainz 05 player Miroslav Karhan und St Pauli Hamburg's Florian Bruns.

News reports on Tuesday said that Metzen has received a warning from the DFB and was told never to do this again. He reportedly escaped further sanctions and told the Bild daily that "it was a mistake."

London, Nov.

London, Nov. 25 : Manchester United and Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo has been defended by his coach Alex Ferguson for reacting to the abuse dished out to him by Stoke City and Aston Villa fans.

The Sun quoted Ferguson as saying: “There has been some criticism that he could not take it on Saturday. But I wonder how many people would take it when they are walking down the street and so many people keep hitting you over the head with a baton. How many times can you take it?