FC Sion have been docked 36 points by the Swiss Football Association (SFV) for fielding ineligible players ending the possibility of Manchester United being reinstated into the Champions League as FC Basle will remain in the competition.

The SFV were threatened with expulsion from all competitions by world football’s governing body FIFA if they failed to punish Sion, who were kicked out of the Europa League by UEFA earlier this season after fielding players they had signed during a transfer embargo.

FIFA told the SFV there would be a blanket ban on Swiss football if action was not taken by January 13. Sion have now been docked three points for each of the 12 Swiss league and cup matches any one of the six ineligible players appeared in. They had been third in the Swiss top flight with 31 points prior to the sanction.

Sion described the decision of the SFV as a “cowardly act”. The club have the right to appeal against the sanction in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and a statement released by the club following the SFV decision read as follows.

“FC Sion was informed by the press of the decision of the Central Committee of the Swiss Football Association to bow to the blackmail of FIFA and collaborate on the injustice facing the club, by pronouncing a deduction of 36 points in the Super League championship.

“This process condemns the team irreparably to relegation. This decision is mainly an intolerable affront to equity in sports, but it is no surprise to (Sion), who did not expect any courage on the part of the SFV in the face of FIFA.

“Considering this cowardly act of the SFV, FC Sion is even more determined to defend its interests and ethics in sport of football by compliance with court decisions, both civil and sports.”

The SFV said in a statement on their official website: “The central board of the SFV has withdrawn 36 points from Super League club FC Sion. The board has therefore met the requirements of FIFA from December 17, 2011.”

FIFA had demanded on December 17 that “all matches in which the relevant players participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted respectively”.

Celtic were reinstated to the Europa League in August, and Sion have pursued a lengthy legal action in various Swiss courts against their ban, attended the Court of Abritration for Sport before FIFA became involved and made their threats.

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has struck a deal with ESPN to broadcast matches from the Russian-based league in the United States, site officials said Tuesday.

The KHL covers six countries and is widely regarded as the second-best hockey league in the world after the NHL, generic which is under a lockout that has brought many of its top stars to the KHL.

The deal covers the “current KHL championship, allergist ” the league said in a statement.

The first KHL match on U.S. TV is to be champions Dynamo Moscow’s match against former champions Ak Bars Kazan on Wednesday, which is likely to feature Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin.

The broadcast agreement also covers Britain, the league said.

Two regular-season KHL games are to be played in New York’s newly built Barclays Center in January, pitting Dynamo against SKA St. Petersburg.

The League Managers Association (LMA) has lashed out the “vast sums of money wasted” on sacking managers in the 2010-11 season, as a record sum was lavished on compensation payments.

In the latest edition of the LMA’s Manager magazine, it is revealed that English clubs in the top four divisions spent in excess of £99 million on changing managers last season.

The figure combines the costs incurred in paying compensation, legal fees and ‘double contracts’, where a manager’s contract is honoured for a period after having been replaced by another.

The total does not, however, include the cost of fees to agents, or the expense of hiring and firing backroom staff to work with the new managers.

Richard Bevan, the LMA’s chief executive, said: “As we approach the end of 2011, we have seen a year in which football clubs in England have spent a record amount on the payment of compensation and legal fees in the dismissal of managers across the leagues.

“This defies the principles of building for stability and success and, more worryingly, is an expense that clubs, certainly in the lower leagues, can ill-afford.

“As the squeeze on finances, from the global institution to the man in the street, continues, we hope 2012 will not see a repeat of the vast sums of money wasted from the game.”

Despite the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger still in charge, the LMA’s report also revealed Premier League managers last, on average, two years. While it is even lower in other divisions.

The report read: “The figure for the length of manager tenure are equally worrying, with the average tenure of a manager in the Championship now having fallen to below 12 months.

“The figures are only slightly better for the other divisions, with League Two managers lasting, on average, for 1.33 years, League One enjoying 1.67 years and Premier League managers lasting 2.07 years.”

Netball South Africa (NSA) has revealed they have signed a five-year broadcast partnership with SuperSport, which will see netball being broadcast live from 2013.

The broadcaster, which covered eight matches of the international Diamond Challenge series in August, said on Monday it would focus its coverage on the national senior team and the new Netball Premier League.

Mimi Mthethwa, the president of NSA, said: “I have always said that netball is the sleeping giant of South African sport and now finally it can take its rightful place alongside the major codes.

“We have been looking for a broadcasting partner who will shape the code of netball in South Africa.

“NSA’s objectives are to surround ourselves with the best stakeholders and help them become an even more professional organisation both on and off the field.

“SuperSport obviously fulfils this objective and will present us in the best possible light.”

The netball federation hoped the move would ensure it did not lose players to foreign countries. In the past, several South African netballers had travelled overseas to gain experience.

Proteas captain Amanda Mynhardt recently returned from New Zealand where she spent three months playing for an amateur club.

“We hope that this deal encourages our players to play in the domestic league so that other countries don’t benefit from our development,” Mthethwa said.

SuperSport chief executive Happy Ntshingila added: “With its massive numbers and competitive nature, netball has much going for it.

“We hope that with our broadcast investment we can help take the sport to another level.

“We are delighted that netball is now part of the SuperSport family.”

English Premier League giants Arsenal FC have postponed their Boxing Day fixture at the Emirates with Wolves by 24 hours, due to the proposed industrial action on London’s transport network.

A statement on the club’s official website read: “As a result of the proposed industrial action on London Underground on Monday, December 26, our home Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, originally planned for Boxing Day, has been postponed.

“Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wanderers will now take place 24 hours later on Tuesday, December 27 (a public holiday), kick-off 3pm at Emirates Stadium.

“This decision has had to be made now, before the result of the legal challenge to the proposed industrial action is finally known, due to the preparation period needed to safely operate Emirates Stadium by all the relevant agencies.

“The Club has been liaising closely in order to make this decision, with all the relevant agencies, including the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, London Underground, The FA Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Islington Council.

“The paramount concern was always the duty of care towards the Arsenal supporters, Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters, Matchday employees, workers and indeed everyone who was planning to attend the match on Boxing Day.

“In addition to the proposed industrial action on London Underground on Boxing Day, there would also have been no services operating on overground train services into London on this day. Also, normal parking restrictions close to the stadium would have still applied. This would have caused severe disruption, or at worst, inability for supporters or Matchday employees and workers to get to Emirates Stadium.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused supporters, but we feel that the right decision has been made based on a duty of care. All tickets purchased for this match are still valid for Tuesday, December 27.”

SIS will once again be covering some of the most prestigious thoroughbred horse racing in the world following a new broadcast deal with The Dubai Racing Club.

SIS has agreed to broadcast all racing from Meydan, anesthetist culminating in the world’s richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup on March 30, 2013.

From November 8, there will be 20 scheduled meetings which will be shown in betting shops and also streamed to digital bookmakers.

Along with the existing agreement to show 11 meetings from Jebel Ali, which starts on November 2, it represents high quality racing throughout the winter for retail and online outlets.

George Irvine, Managing Director, SIS Betting, said: “We’re delighted to be able to continue with our coverage from Meydan. This is our tenth year of showing racing from Dubai and the feedback from bookmakers is that this is content their customers like to bet on.

“Meydan races predominately from 3 pm to 7pm Thursdays and Saturdays, while Jebel Ali meetings are on Fridays from 10am to 1pm – times which work well for bookmakers. And it all culminates in the richest meeting in the world, the Dubai World Cup day, with eight Group 1 races.”

Steve Templeman, director of Jenningsbet, predicted the new SIS deal would be popular with customers . “The racing is well-organised over there and it’s good quality, which always goes down well with the punters,” he said.

“The time difference means there’ll be few clashes with other premium races so it’s a good thing for us. Hopefully we’ll see some increased revenue as a result.”

All pre-race and race-day data and pricing will be available via the SISdata365 feed. Shops will take the service via FACTS, while operators worldwide can take a packaged streaming service for their website and mobile outlets.

Tennis world number two Rafael Nadal and his uncle Miguel Angel Nadal have added salt onto the wounds of Real Mallorca fans as they have sold their 10 percent shareholding in the Spanish football team, the club said in a statement.

German businessman Utz Claassen bought the shares to increase his stakeholding to 20 percent.

Nadal, a Real Madrid fan who lives on the Mediterranean island, had joined a consortium that invested in financially troubled Mallorca in 2010.

His uncle Miguel Angel, a former Spain and Barcelona defender, became then coach Michael Laudrup’s number two, but when the Dane resigned in September Nadal openly criticised the board’s handling of the matter.

Mallorca, now coached by Joaquin Caparros, are in financial administration, lie 14th in La Liga and trail 1-0 going into Tuesday’s King’s Cup last-32 second leg at Sporting Gijon.

The FIA and Eurosport Events Ltd. have renewed their commercial rights agreement for the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

This is the second renewal of the agreement among the parties, herbal since the FIA appointed Eurosport Events as WTCC championship promoter back in 2005.

The new contract will have a duration of five years, ed until December 31, 2017.

Jean Todt, FIA President said: “The FIA is delighted to carry on this cooperation with Eurosport Events that has proved so fruitful so far. During these eight years it has been promoting the World Touring CarChampionship, Eurosport Events put in a huge effort to make the championship growing in competition on the track and popularity worldwide. The renewal of the agreement will further enhance the cooperation among the parties to make the championship even stronger.”

Laurent Eric Le Lay, Eurosport CEO commented: “We greatly appreciate the value of the fact that the FIA wished to continue placing its trust in Eurosport Events. This new agreement is a powerful motivation for us to redouble our efforts and work in partnership with them for another five years. We are confident that the WTCC has a huge potential to grow further, up to the highest level in motorsport, attracting new car manufacturers and expanding its presence in the key automotive markets worldwide.”

The English Premier League and French Football League, Ligue 1 have combined to lobby UEFA concerning the issue of selling player transfer rights to investors and the effect it will have on financial fair play. Previously this month, UEFA stated it will investigate third-party ownership, a practice that is allowed in most of Europe, but banned in both France and England.

The two nations hold the belief that because third-party ownership is permitted under the FFP rules, English and French clubs will be at a serious disadvantage as clubs in Spain, Portugal an Germany will be able to purchase players for a lower price because a lower party holds on to a percentage of the rights, which can be repaid over the length of the players contract.

Third-party ownership was outlawed by the Premier League following the controversy surrounding the Carlos Tevez affair and has warned that if the practice is permitted to continue, the integrity of competition will be seriously damaged. A spokesman for the Premier League said: “Third-party ownership is prohibited under Premier League rules as we believe it threatens the integrity of the game,

“We are aware that it is permitted under UEFA’s financial fair play regulations and that this could create a disadvantage for our clubs competing in European competition.

“We believe that restricting transparent owner equity investment while having no prohibition on third-party player investment seems at odds with the principles of FFP. The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) also restricts third-party ownership and we have had initial discussions with them to consider how we might work together to further highlight these issues at UEFA and FIFA level.”

Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s head of club licensing, has admitted that the issue is a major concern. UEFA will evaluate club’s account over a three year period beginning with the current 2011-12 financial year. Clubs involved in European competition will be allowed to make a loss of just Eur45 million over those years.