England face South Africa friendly

England will play a friendly against South Africa in Durban next summer, it was announced yesterday.

Sven Goran Eriksson's side will face the Bafana Bafana on 22 May in the build-up to the 11 June home Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia. Eriksson has already stated his intent to take his squad for a training camp and the Football Association organised the historic friendly following a long-standing request by the former South African president Nelson Mandela.

It will be the first time England have played in South Africa and Eriksson said: "Football is such a popular sport in South Africa and I'm sure it will be a fantastic occasion. We will look forward to it very much."

The sport's European governing body, Uefa, has launched an investigation into racist taunts by Spanish and Croatian fans during last week's Champions' League and Uefa Cup matches against visiting English clubs. Uefa said the alleged cases of abuse occurred during Valencia's 17 September Champions' League match against Liverpool in Spain and Hajduk's Split's Uefa Cup tie against Fulham in Croatia two days later.

Trevor Francis' short reign at Crystal Palace may soon be over. The club's owner, Simon Jordan, is said to be disenchanted with his manager, whose spending spree this summer after the sale of Clinton Morrison to Birmingham has failed to improve the team's form. The two men are said to have hardly spoken in recent weeks and Francis could be dismissed by the weekend.

Francis is on a lucrative contract and any settlement is likely to cost Palace around £250,000. Jordan has been complaining about the cost of running the club this season and has been reluctant to dismiss Francis, who arrived less than a year ago after the acrimonious departure of Steve Bruce.

If Francis leaves, Jordan will not want to recruit an expensive replacement. The first-team coaches, Steve Kember and Terry Bullivant, took temporary charge after Bruce's departure last year and Jordan may turn to them on a permanent basis. However, Jordan may go for Peter Taylor. The former Leicester and Brighton manager, who played for Palace, is currently assisting Barry Fry at Peterborough.

The Birmingham City midfielder Robbie Savage has lodged an appeal with the FA over his £10,000 fine for using a referee's toilet last season when he was a Leicester City player.

Watford players are set to defer a percentage of their wages rather than take a pay cut following a meeting between the Professional Footballers' Association and the club. The First Division club had asked players to take a 12 per cent pay cut to help prevent Watford from going into administration. The players will now be asked to defer the money, which will be repaid to them when the club's financial situation improves.