Persepolis' Farzad Ashoubi (l)goes past Sepahan's defender in their match at Isafahan's Foulad-Shahr Stadium on Monday.

ISFAHAN, Dec. 31--Sepahan of Isfahan ruined Persepolis’ unbeaten run when it defeated Iran Premier League’s leading team on Monday.
Sepahan succeeded in get three vital points at Isfahan’s Foulad-Shahr Stadium.
The second-placed team won 2-1 over Persepolis, Mehr News Agency reported.
Mohammad Nosrati, Persepolis’ defender, scored own goal in the 35th minute to lead the host and Sepahan’s second on 41 minutes came from Emad Reza’s shot into the Reds’ box .
The Reds eventually scored when Mohammad Savari, Sepahan’s keeper, could not control Abbas Aqaei’s long shot in the 80th minute.
Persepolis still occupies the first spot with 36 points while Sepahan is placed second with 34 points.

TEHRAN, Dec. 31--Iran may postpone the appointment of a new National Football Team coach.
According to ISNA, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge has already been named as new coach and even held talks with the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) on Thursday in Tehran.
But as elections for the new IFF president are to be held on January 9, two officials have asked for postponing the appointment until after the elections.
Ali Kaffashian, secretary-general of Iran’s Olympic Committee, and Shahrokh Shahnazi, head of the country’s tennis federation, told ISNA that selecting the new coach should be the job of the new IFF president.
Since the news leaked out that Jorge is the top candidate, Tehran’s sports press expressed doubts about the Portuguese coach’s abilities.
Several dailies argued that Jorge has trained no big team for the last six years, suffered more losses than victories during his career and also had heart problems.
Two other options of IFF were French coach Jacques Santini and Germany’s Peter Neururer, but Jorge is said to have demanded much less than the two.
Due to differences with football’s ruling body FIFA over governmental interference in football affairs, the IFF has not been able to elect a president since last year.
In the first round of the World Cup qualifiers, Iran is scheduled to play against Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Before the qualifiers, Iran will have two friendly games against German club Hansa Rostock and the national team of Mali.

TEHRAN, Dec. 31--FIFA and AFC delegates will visit Tehran to supervise the January election for electing the head of Iran’s Football Federation.
FIFA’s director of international relations, Jerome Champagne, and AFC vice president, Paul Muni, will observe and verify the elections slated for January 9, Presstv reported.
Members of the General Assembly of Iran’s Football Federation (IFF) will elect the future head of the federation to pave the way for hiring a new national team coach.
A member of IFF’s Transition Committee said other delegates might also visit the country for the same purpose.
Ali Raghbati added that the committee, FIFA and AFC have agreed on January 9 as the date of the elections that have been postponed twice so far.
Mohsen Safaei-Farahani is currently acting as the interim chairman of Iranian Football Federation.

PERTH, Australia, Dec. 31--Tennis authorities have a tough task to stop match-fixing because it is too easy to fix results, said Martina Navratilova.
Navratilova, the winner of 59 grand slam titles, said the sport had to do whatever it takes to put an end to the scandals that rocked tennis in 2007, Reuters reported.
A match involving Russian world number four Nikolay Davydenko in August is one of several under investigation because of irregular betting patterns.
Several players on the men’s tour have admitted being offered money to throw a match but all insist they refused the bribes.
“It’s pretty new this match-fixing idea,“ Navratilova told reporters at the Hopman Cup in Perth on Monday.
“So we’ll see where it goes (but) of course, if it is a problem, it’s pretty easy to throw a tennis match because it’s so hard to prove.
“We have to make sure that the sport stays clean, both on the drug side as well as any kind of betting scandal. We have to keep it clean whatever it takes.“
“We need to make sure that, most of all, the players understand what’s at stake here.“

Rafael Nadal

CHENNAI, India, Dec. 31--Spaniard Rafael Nadal has targeted the 2008 Beijing Olympics after ending a third consecutive year as world number two behind Swiss maestro Roger Federer.
The 21-year-old French Open champion is the top seed at the Chennai Open next week where he will also play in the doubles with compatriot Bartolome Salva-Vidal, Reuters wrote.
“I like doubles a lot, when I can I play a lot of doubles,“ Nadal told a news conference on Sunday. “This year there is special significance because of the Olympic Games.
“The Davis Cup is also there, but importantly the Olympics comes one time in four years. It is a special tournament, special motivation.“
Nadal said he could still improve his game from 2007 but was unconcerned about Federer.
“I’d love to be number two for 50 more years,“ he said.
“Especially in my situation, 5,600 or 5,700 points, that is a lot,“ he said, comparing his 5,735 ranking points to Federer’s 7,180. “In a normal moment in the history of tennis, I’d have been number one.“
The claycourt specialist won six titles in 2007 and pushed Federer to the brink in an epic five-setter on grass in the Wimbledon final. However, he was subdued in the hardcourt grand slams, losing in the quarterfinal at Australian Open and in the US Open fourth round.

MILAN, Italy, Dec. 31--Jose Mourinho and Didier Drogba will both be at AC Milan next season.
According to French newspaper L’Equipe, Portuguese boss Mourinho has been out of work since leaving Chelsea by mutual consent a few months ago, but it is reported that he has already signed a pre-contract agreement to take over from Carlo Ancelotti in June.
Ancelotti will in turn replace Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona’s Coach for next season, although this could be altered if the Italian national team flop at Euro 2008, whereby Carletto would substitute Roberto Donadoni.
Mourinho’s first signing at Milan will be Ivorian striker Didier Drogba. The 29-year-old is arguably the Blues most important player, however he wants to leave the club following Mourinho’s exit.
The Rossoneri would bid £25m for Drogba, and although Chelsea are likely to put up a fight, it is unlikely they will be able to stop him leaving.
Another high-profile player, who is virtually certain to be playing at Milan next season, is Barcelona’s Gianluca Zambrotta, whose wife is homesick and wants to return to Italy.
The Azzurri wing-back will be available for just £5m, although the move could go through as early as January.

LONDON, Dec. 31-- The record 70.0 million pounds ($140.1 million) English clubs spent in the January transfer window two years ago is likely to be broken next month.
The combination of clubs newly enriched by a 1.7 billion pounds TV deal, new owners with deep pockets and the battle for the title, for European places or to avoid relegation suggests a busy month until the window closes at midnight on January 31, AP wrote.
Chelsea, with Roman Abramovich’s billions, could be among the biggest spenders-- especially if Ronaldinho should leave Barcelona for Stamford Bridge in a deal that could be worth around 40.0 million pounds.
Chelsea have been linked with more players than any other club in the build-up to the winter sales, but one player unlikely to be joining them is Croatian forward Luka Modric, who has also attracted interest from Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
His Dinamo Zagreb club say he is going nowhere for at least another year even if they are offered 25.0 million pounds or more for him.
Chelsea and Manchester City have also been linked with striker Nicolas Anelka of Bolton Wanderers who would cost in the region of 15.0 million pounds, and Chelsea’s need for a proven scorer has been heightened by the absence of Didier Drogba.
Their top scorer is recovering from a knee operation and will then be missing for three weeks when he plays for Ivory Coast at the African Nations Cup.

Roberto Heras

MADRID, Spain,
Dec. 31--Three-time Tour of Spain winner Roberto Heras, whose two-year doping ban ended in October, confirmed that he has decided to quit professional cycling.
“I’ve thrown in the towel, there’s no going back,“ Heras, 33, told Spanish sports daily Marca.
Heras said he had received offers from cycling teams but because of the anti-doping code of ethics he cannot join a ProTour outfit for two years.
“I still don’t understand the code of ethics and why ProTour teams can’t hire a rider who like me has served his ban. Other top riders will have to quit the peloton because they can’t find a team.“
Heras added: “Cycling is going through a bad period: teams, organizers, the UCI (international cycling union) are at war, there is no unity, so it’s very difficult to get out of the crisis.“
Heras was suspended for two years in October 2005 after testing positive for the banned blood booster EPO in the final stages of that year’s Tour of Spain just as he was set to secure a record fourth triumph.
The former Liberty Seguros rider had said in the past that he was planning to return to the sport after completing his ban.
His decision to retire follows that of compatriot Joseba Beloki, a three-time podium finisher on the Tour de France. Beloki, 34, had been without a team since being implicated, along with dozens of other cyclists, in the ’Operation Puerto’ doping affair.

PERTH, Australia,
Dec. 31--The United States made it two wins out of two at the Hopman Cup on Monday when Tomas Berdych retired through illness midway through the mixed doubles of their encounter with the Czech Republic.
According to Reuters, world number seven Serena Williams had put the United States ahead with a hard-fought 6-0 2-6 7-5 victory over Lucie Safarova.
Berdych was a doubtful starter because of a virus and organizers had allowed him to play the mixed doubles first in the hope that it would help him complete the match.
But after losing the first set 6-0 to Williams and Mardy Fish, Berdych quit, also handing the American a walkover in the singles to give the United States a 3-0 victory.
Looking fitter than in recent years, Williams, who only arrived in Perth on Sunday because of a recent stomach virus, began superbly against Safarova, racing through the first set in just 22 minutes.
Safarova was also struggling to overcome a similar illness, Berdych, but she improved as the match wore on, surging to a 3-0 lead and then holding on to level the match.
Hitting a series of winners, particularly down the line, it looked like world number 23 Safarova would cause an upset when she led 4-2 in the third set and held a point for a 5-2 lead.
But Williams hit back and after leveling at 4-4, she broke again in the 11th game before serving out for victory.

Francis Gillot

SOCHAUX, France, Dec. 31-- Francis Gillot was appointed Sochaux coach on Monday, the Ligue 1 strugglers said on Monday.
According to Reuters, Gillot, 46, resigned as Racing Lens coach last May. He replaces Frederic Hantz, who was sacked earlier this month following a string of poor results. Sochaux are second from bottom halfway through the championship.