London - Manchester City's owners insisted Monday that they support manager Mark Hughes, despite a string of poor results.

City lost 2-1 at home to Tottenham on Sunday, their seventh defeat of the season seeing them slide to 13th in the table.

"We are calm and under control, and we on the board have the highest regard for Mark," said chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak after the first meeting of the new City board.

City was bought by a consortium representing the Abu Dhabi royal family in September.

Madrid - Spanish champions Real Madrid have signed up Alipio Duarte Brandao, a 16 year-old Brazilian winger, his agent was on Monday quoted as saying.

The agent, Helder Daniel, said that Alipio will start to train this week with Real's third division nursery side, called Real Madrid Castilla.

News reports quoted Daniel as saying that the teenage winger "is very happy" with the deal.

Alipio was on the books of Portuguese side Rio Ave, who will receive around 550.000 euros (699.925 dollars) from the deal.

Hamburg - Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has escaped the wrath of German football authorities following some outspoken criticism of a referee, but two others may not be so fortunate.

The German Football Federation (DFB) said its control panel would be investigating both Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp and Werder Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro following incidents in the weekend's Bundesliga matches.

Zurich - FIFA president Joseph Blatter called Monday for professional referees as a measure to protect football from the threat of match-fixing.

Blatter told a congress of football's world governing body in Zurich on sport betting that there appeared to "no limits" on what people were prepared to bet.

In reference to a recent match-fixing scandal in Germany which led to the jailing of a former referee, Blatter said there were still no professional referees in the Bundesliga.

"Nobody can say that the money is not there. We have to protect those who could be or already are the targets of such methods," he said.

Rostock, Germany - Second-division Hansa Rostock Monday sacked coach Frank Pagelsdorf, a day after fellow-relegated club MSV Duisburg dismissed coach Rudi Bommer.

All three clubs relegated from Germany's top-flight Bundesliga last season have now parted company with their coaches, after Nuremberg dismissed Thomas von Heesen at the end of August.

Pagelsdorf, who had won promotion with Rostock in 1995 and 2007, confirmed at a news conference that he had been dismissed. A successor is yet to be named.

It follows four games without a win which have left Rostock in 12th place, three points away from the relegation zone.

London, Nov 10 : Foreign birds are driving ace Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo wild again after team’s training ground was invaded by Canadian geese.

The fowl keep dive-bombing Ronaldo and team-mates including Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs as they practiced, The Sun reported.

The birds have achieved something that no footballer would ever dare to try — interrupting one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s training sessions.