Munich - Bayern Munich Willy Sagnol faces the end of his football career over an Achilles tendon injury, the local tz daily reported on Tuesday.

Sagnol, 31, said that an operation scheduled for this week to ease the pain has been scrapped. Asked whether he has hope of returning to the pitch, he told the tz: "I don't know where to get it from."

The former France defender has not played since May and underwent surgery in August. He had initially hoped that another operation would put an end to his misery and allow him to return to the pitch.

Sagnol came to Munich in 2000 and has a contract until 2010.

Hamburg - Bayern Munich will be going out for victory at Olympique Lyon on Wednesday to make absolutely sure of top spot in Group F of the European Champions League.

A win followed by a victory on Saturday at VfB Stuttgart - and possible top spot in the Bundesliga - would be the perfect end to the year for Bayern in Juergen Klinsmann's first term in charge.

Yet a defeat in Lyon might conceivably be considered a good omen for the German champions.

The last time Bayern lost on French soil - a heavy 3-0 defeat at Lyon in March 2001 - they went on to win Europe's top crown just two months later.

Hamburg  - Playmaker Diego from troubled top club Werder Bremen was banned for four Bundesliga matches by the German football federation on Tuesday for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Diego, 24, grabbed SC Karlsruhe player Christian Eichner by the throat and neck during the teams' league match on Saturday which Karlsruhe won 1-0.

The incident went unnoticed by the referee but the DFB acted upon television footage. The DFB said that Bremen and Diego have accepted the ruling.

The Brazilian midfielder will miss the final match of the year on the weekend and the first three games after the winter break. He is eligible to return in late February for the match at Energie Cottbus.

Dusseldorf  - A Dusseldorf court Tuesday convicted a Lebanese man of planting bombs on two trains in Germany that would have caused mass carnage if they had exploded.

Berlin  - German exports fell in October, the nation's statistics office said Tuesday, as slowing global growth undercut foreign orders for Europe's biggest economy.

Adjusted for working days and seasonal factors, exports dropped by 0.5 per cent month on month in October after rising by 0.8 per cent in September.

However, the fall in October was less than expected with analysts having predicted that signs the world economy was rapidly losing momentum would result in German exports slumping by more than 1 per cent. Year on year, exports rose 1.4 per cent in October.

Berlin  - German investor confidence is to fall this month, a key indicator released Tuesday is forecast to say, as concerns set in about the outlook for Europe's biggest economy.

Drawn up by the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research, the ZEW index is forecast by analysts to drop to minus 54.3 in December after posting a surprise jump to minus 53.5 November.