Scotland caretaker role for Burns

The Scottish Football Association have appointed Tommy Burns as caretaker for Scotland's friendly against Sweden on 17 November.

The Scottish Football Association have appointed Tommy Burns as caretaker for Scotland's friendly against Sweden on 17 November.

The former Celtic player and manager was assistant to Berti Vogts before the German resigned as Scotland coach on Monday. The SFA drew up an all-Scottish short list at their board meeting yesterday to fill the vacancy. The SFA chief executive, David Taylor, said the number of names on the list was "more than one and fewer than 10".

Elsewhere, the Real Betis president, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, has hinted that he may be prepared to sell the winger Joaquin Sanchez to Chelsea. The Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, is known to be a fan of the 23-year-old, while Lopera said Chelsea have made some tempting offers.

"I have the feeling that if Joaquin does end up at another club, it might not be Real Madrid, because we have had some offers that maybe Real Madrid can't match," Lopera said. "Chelsea made me a very big offer. I said no and when they said they wanted to keep on negotiating they changed their coach and it stopped. If they raise their offer, one day we are going to say yes."

Robert Pires has been called to appear before France officials on Monday to explain his criticism of the national manager, Raymond Domenech. "The Arsenal midfielder will be asked to answer for criticising Domenech and infringing Les Bleus sponsorship rules," a French Federation spokesman said yesterday.