Louis van Gaal was left hoping for a stay of execution over Christmas after speculation mounted that the Manchester United manager was set to be sacked before his side's Boxing Day trip to Stoke City.

Van Gaal finds himself in severe danger of being axed halfway through his three-year contract after United's miserable six-match winless run saw them suffer an embarrassing Champions League exit and slip out of the Premier League's top four.

Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has revealed he expects to be sidelined for six weeks after suffering a hamstring injury.

Skrtel limped off in the first half of Liverpool's 3-0 defeat at Watford on Sunday and scans have revealed the Slovakia center-back has a torn hamstring that will keep him out until February.

Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol called out his teammates for a lack of urgency Monday after a 105-102 loss to the Brooklyn Nets in which Joakim Noah was injured.

The Nets, a woeful 8-20 on the season, snapped an eight-game road losing streak while the Bulls lost their third in a row and fell to 15-11.

Brazil may not know who its president will be in eight months' time, and Olympic athletes won't have TVs in their rooms because of the country's recession, but Rio de Janeiro is still promising a "spectacular" 2016 Games.

With its budget in tatters because of the economic crisis and the nation shamed by not cleaning pathogenic sewage from Guanabara Bay -- the Rio venue for Olympic regattas -- criticism has been rife.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger heralded Mesut Ozil after the German playmaker rose from his sickbed to inspire his team to victory over Premier League title rivals Manchester City.

Ozil teed up first-half goals for Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud at the Emirates Stadium on Monday as Arsenal secured a 2-1 win that left them four points above City and two points below leaders Leicester City.

Just days after Jose Mourinho's abrupt departure from Chelsea, Louis van Gaal is teetering on the brink of becoming the next high-profile victim of the Premier League sack race.

The pressure is mounting on the embattled Manchester United manager, who was hunkered down at United's Carrington training base on Monday amid speculation he will be axed if his side lose either of their next two matches at Stoke City on Saturday or at home against Chelsea next Monday.

David Beckham has barely found a new stadium site for his Miami-based Major League Soccer expansion team, and he already says he wants to sign Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Beckham told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he is interested in the Paris Saint-Germain striker, according to a posting on the MLS website.

An ethics tribunal of scandal-plagued FIFA on Monday banned Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for eight years saying they had abused their positions over a 2 million Swiss francs payment made to Platini.

The sentence against the two most powerful men in football stunningly highlighted the troubles faced by the world's most popular sport where billions of dollars have been invested in recent years.

Jurgen Klopp challenged his Liverpool flops to prove they have the stomach for a fight after capitulating in a woeful 3-0 defeat against Watford.

Klopp's side fell apart after a blunder from Reds goalkeeper Adam Bogdan was punished by Watford's Nathan Ake in the third minute at Vicarage Road on Sunday.

Roma can achieve "big things" this season but only if an ongoing fan boycott that has seen the Serie A title hopefuls play to a near empty Stadio Olimpico ends, said embattled coach Rudi Garcia.

Garcia was whistled and jeered by fans as his face appeared on the big screen prior to kick-off on Sunday, when Roma dug deep to end a four-game winless streak with a 2-0 win at home to Genoa.