Grant named manager

LONDON: English Premier League strugglers Portsmouth on Thursday named former Chelsea and Israel boss Avram Grant as their new manager. Grant, who returned to the club as director of football in October, takes over from Paul Hart, who was sacked earlier this week. His first game in charge will be Saturday's meeting with champions Manchester United at Fratton Park. Grant served briefly as Portsmouth's technical director before moving, in July 2007, to Chelsea, where he served as director of football before stepping in to the manager's chair following the departure of Jose Mourinho two months later.

Abidal extends contract

MADRID: French international defender Eric Abidal on Wednesday extended his contract with Barcelona by a year which will keep him at the European champions until 2012. The 30-year-old, who arrived from Lyon in 2007, is the sixth player to renew his contract this season after Yaya Toure, Victor Valdes, Pedro, Lionel Messi and Carles Puyol. Barcelona gave no financial details except to say that Abidal's buy-out clause remains unchanged at $135.6 million. Abidal was a surprise inclusion in the Barcelona squad that beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday after recovering from swine flu.

Football betting scandal

NYON: More Champions League qualification games from this season have been linked to the betting scandal currently rocking European football, it was reported on Wednesday. When news of the affair first broke last Friday three Champions League matches were said to be involved in the 200 games spread across nine countries under investigation. Now German sports agency Sid are suggesting the number of Champions League matches under suspicion could be far higher, quoting sources close to European football's governing body UEFA.