Iraq, who entered the tournament on the opening day of preliminaries, are through to the final of the men's football competition after beating Korea 1-0 in a close-fought semifinal at Al-Gharrafa Sports Club.

Following the judgment passed by a New York court in the MasterCard v. FIFA case on 7 December, FIFA has parted company with its Director of the Marketing & TV Division, Jérôme Valcke, and three other employees in the division, Tom Houseman, Robert Lampman and Stefan Schuster.

FIFA and the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) delivered on their promise to establish the first sports administration programme as a part of FIFA's "Win in Africa with Africa" initiative when the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal recently opened its doors to 52 students for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Troubled Paris St Germain will be under tight scrutiny when they host Greek side Panathinaikos in the UEFA Cup on Wednesday in their first home match since one of their fans was killed by a policeman.

Germany will take on Romania in a friendly in Cologne on 12 September 2007 having already arranged matches against Austria and Switzerland for the new year.

Twenty-two sports may be on the schedule for Tuesday 12 December, but only one has truly been the hot topic of conversation across Doha and that is men's football thanks to the presence of hosts Qatar in the semifinals.

The four teams who will contest the men's football semifinals has been decided after a thrilling night of action in Doha.

Qatar's crucial men's football quarterfinal with Thailand has been put back to 19:00 on Saturday 9 December - that's a change from the original time of 16:00.

Qatar qualified for the quarterfinals of the football competition at the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 after they defeated United Arab Emirates 4-1 in a group A match played at Al-Sadd Stadium.

Wrestling:
Armenia's Greco-Roman wrestlers Vahan Juharyan (60kg), Arman Adikyan (66kg) and Arsen Julfalakyan (74kg) won gold medals in the Henry Delaney international memorial tournament that recently ended in Nice, France.

Football Coach Shula will not be retained for 2007 season; Kines named interim coach

University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore announced today that Mike Shula will not be retained as head football coach. Shula led the Crimson Tide to a 26-23 record overall in his four seasons (2003-06) as head coach.

Football

The FIFA rankings for November put Armenia in the 124th place. As compared to the previous month's rankings Armenia rolled five ranks down the scale. Azerbaijan are immediately ahead of Armenia, 123rd, after having climbed five ranks up since October.