Today's other stories in brief

Penalties may be binned

Fifa president Sepp Blatter believes future World Cup finals should not be decided by penalties and said changes could be in place for the showpiece tournament in South Africa in four years.

Italy's win over France on penalties made up for their 1994 final defeat by Brazil in a shootout, but Blatter said the manner of deciding it was "a tragedy". He said a replay or gradually deducting players in extra-time would be a better solution.

"We have four years or so, so I think we have time," Blatter said. "Maybe to replay the match if it's the final, you can't do that through the tournament because of lack of time. Maybe to take players away and play golden goal," he said, adding that high-level discussions would start soon.

Sponsors to stay on

Barclays have agreed to sponsor the English Premier League until 2010 in a deal worth £65.8 million, nearly £9 million more than their previous three-year contract.

The new deal runs from the 2007-'08 campaign through to the 2009-'10 season.

Inter deny spying

The president of Italian champions Inter Milan has denied allegations his club paid a firm of private investigators to spy on one of the referees involved in the Serie A match-fixing scandal.

"I can confirm that there have never been instructions to follow anyone," Massimo Moratti told La Gazzetta dello Sport's website yesterday.

The claims against Inter were made earlier this week by former referee Massimo De Santis, who said that in 2002 the club employed a firm to follow him, take photographs of him and tap his phone line. In July, De Santis was banned for four years after being found guilty of conspiring to rig Serie A matches in the 2004-'05 season.

In brief . . .

Randy Lerner has increased his holding in Aston Villa to over 90 per cent of the club and now intends to exercise his right to compulsorily purchase the remainder as soon as possible . . . Everton defender Gary Naysmith (27) will be sidelined for six weeks because of a medial ligament injury suffered last weekend . . . Rangers winger Chris Burke (22) will be out of action until Christmas as he needs an operation after damaging ligaments in his left shoulder in a challenge with Aiden McGeady during the defeat at Celtic on Saturday.