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Porto face match-fixing allegations

PORTO COULD be relegated to the second division after being formally notified they and president Pinto da Costa are under investigation of match-fixing in the 2003/04 season.

That year saw arguably Jose Mourinho's greatest triumph as he lead the Portuguese side to the Champions League trophy.

A brief statement on the club's website said: "FC Porto and their president have been notified by the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) of the accusations and investigations concerning matches between FC Porto and Estrela da Amadora, and Beira Mar and FC Porto."

Porto won the first game 2-0, while the match at Beira ended in a goalless draw, but both results are under investigation over allegations of corrupting the referees.

Ireland in the hat for Turkish draw

THE DRAW for the finals of the European Under-17 European Championships will take place tomorrow evening in Antalya, Turkey, with the Republic of Ireland one of eight countries to be allocated to one of the competition's two groups.

Seán McCaffrey's side qualified for the competition last month after a remarkable last round of games in their Elite phase mini tournament.

Their group rivals in May will be drawn from Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Spain, Serbia as well as the host nation. Reigning champions Spain are one of four previous champions at this level while Ireland won the tournament under its old guise, the Under-16 European Championships, in 1998.

Sunday evening schedules set 

SETANTA SPORTS have confirmed the line-up of their first batch of League of Ireland Premier League games to be broadcast live on Sunday evenings, writes Emmet Malone.

The meeting of Drogheda United and Bohemians kicks off the run of six matches on April 20th with Shamrock Rovers against St Patrick's Athletic featuring a week later.

Cork City feature in the next two of what is a strong series of matches, away to St Patrick's Athletic and then Bohemians on May 4th and 18th respectively.

Another Dublin derby - between St Patrick's and Bohemians - then follows on Tuesday, May 27th, before the Sunday night action resumes with the visit of Cork City to Derry City's Brandywell on June 1st.

The Tuesday night game at Richmond Park starts at 8pm but the rest have 7pm kick-offs.

Setanta will show a total of 15 live league games this year in addition to Setanta Cup games and the company's football editor, Tim Tuomey, expressed the hope yesterday that the Sunday evening slot will prove popular with League of Ireland supporters over the summer months.

Georgia sack manager Toppmoeller

GEORGIA, ONE of the Republic of Ireland's qualifying rivals for the 2010 World Cup, last night sacked their German coach Klaus Toppmoeller according to news agency Interfax.

"The removal of the head coach from his job was dictated by the extremely mediocre performances of the national side under his management," the news agency quoted soccer federation president Nodar Akhalkatsi as telling reporters.

Toppmoeller, a former Bayer Leverkusen coach who in his first season at the German club took them to the Champions League final, had been Georgian head coach since 2006.

Georgia are in Group Eight to qualify for the World Cup final in South Africa in two years.

They were beaten 4-1 in a friendly against Northern Ireland last Wednesday.

Lippi denial

THERE WAS no conflict of interest between Marcello Lippi being a manager and his son Davide being a football agent, the former Italy and Juventus coach told a court in written testimony yesterday.

Evidence from a meeting between Lippi and a prosecutor were released to the on running trial of six men suspected of manipulating the Italian transfer market for their own gain.