South Africa star Steven Pienaar has warned Everton they have until the end of this month to make his loan move from Borussia Dortmund permanent or risk losing him to a Premier League rival.

Pienaar has successfully adapted to English football since joining the Toffees at the start of the season and would like to extend his stay at Goodison Park.

But he has grown concerned over Everton’s failure to make a move towards buying him on a permanent basis before the end-of-the-month expiry of a clause in his contract which allows him to leave Dortmund for three million euros.

Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers are still confident they can knock Sporting Lisbon out of the UEFA Cup quarter finals on Thursday despite failing to score in the first leg at Ibrox last week - according to midfielder Lee McCulloch.

The Portuguese side gained the advantage in the tie when they secured a 0-0 draw in Glasgow.

However, Rangers have already shown they can score away from home in Europe this season in both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup.

Three months before he takes over as Bayern Munich head coach, Jurgen Klinsmann is already causing waves in the south Germany city as he prepares for his first season in charge.

Klinsmann will succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld, who will coach Switzerland after Euro 2008, on July 1 and has begun instigating changes which have not gone down well in Munich.

When it was announced last month the public restaurant at Bayern’s Saebener Strasse training ground will close to make way for a new team room, a flurry of negative stories rippled through the German media criticising Klinsmann.

Manchester United were given a boost on Monday when a scan revealed that defender Rio Ferdinand had not broken a bone in his left foot, as had been feared.

The England defender left Middlesbrough on crutches after Sunday’s 2-2 Premier League draw, leading some to predict his season could be over.

Despite confirming that the 29-year-old had not suffered a fracture, United would not put any timescale on his return to action.

Source:Soccer News

Spanish giants Barcelona will be out to ease the pressure on their under-fire coach Frank Rijkaard and president Joan Laporta by progressing to the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday.

The 2006 continental champions beat German side Schalke 04 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen last Tuesday to take the advantage in their quarter-final clash but they have to put behind them some disappointing recent domestic displays.

They were held to a 0-0 in the Nou Camp by Getafe on Sunday, only the second time they have failed to score at home in La Liga this season, and they have now only won once in their last seven Spanish first division outings.

Real Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez says he still has a remote chance of being given the nod for Spain’s national squad for the Euro 2008 football finals if he keeps up his current strong form.

“I have more desire to go than hope. It’s complicated when you have been so long without going and there is a group that has qualified and it is normal that the coach trusts that group,” he said in an interview to be broadcast Saturday on television station La Sexta.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes the footballer who claimed he accepted a 50,000-pound (63,400-euro) bribe be named.

The Gunners boss also wants anyone found guilty of corruption to be “banned for life.”

The Football Association are to investigate a report by The Independent newspaper that a player with a serious gambling problem agreed a deal with a bookmaker to write off his debts.

The match is said to have been played in the last two years in Britain, but the report did not name the player nor state which league was involved. The player, it is claimed, agreed to get himself sent off and persuade three team-mates to pick up cautions in a specific match.