Pires back in France squad to face Czechs

The France coach, Jacques Santini, has recalled the Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires, along with the striker David Trezeguet and the defender Bixente Lizarazu, to his squad for the friendly against the Czech Republic in Paris next Wednesday.

Pires missed last year's World Cup finals after tearing a ligament in his right knee and has not played for the European champions since a 2-1 victory over Romania a year ago. But, since returning to the Arsenal first team, the 29-year-old has scored nine goals.

In contrast to Pires, the Leeds and Scotland defender Dominic Matteo has decided to retire from international football because of injury problems. Matteo had an operation on a knee injury earlier this season and has only recently returned to action with Leeds. The 28-year-old Dumfries-born defender won six caps for Scotland, making his international debut against Australia under Craig Brown in 2000.

"I can't guarantee my fitness and have to be fair to [the coach] Berti Vogts and the other players," Matteo said. "I have consulted several specialists who all tell me I have to reduce the number of games I play each year, otherwise I might not be playing in two or three years' time."

Teddy Sheringham said he has not yet discussed a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur. He had reportedly been offered a new one-year deal with the London club.

Luke Chadwick is in talks with Stoke City about a loan move to the First Division strugglers. The winger is out of Sir Alex Ferguson's plans and is also being chased by Cardiff, but Stoke hope to finalise the move today. Sir Alex is friends with Stoke's director of football, John Rudge. The Stoke defender Frazer Richardson is to stay at the club for a further month after Leeds agreed to extend his loan deal.

The Manchester City striker Paulo Wanchope will return to training next week after overcoming his knee problems. The Costa Rican scored 13 goals in 18 appearances as City won the Nationwide League title last season, but has not played since the World Cup.

Southampton's assault on their wage bill continued yesterday as Andrei Kanchelskis moved to Saudi Arabia. The winger joined the Saints on a free transfer last summer but made only two brief substitute appearances before joining Al Hilal in a four-month deal. Southampton's injury-plagued midfielder Mark Draper is also close to agreeing a pay-off.

The hopes of Celtic and Rangers of playing in a league outside Scotland appeared to have been dashed yesterday when Uefa, the governing body of European football, attempted to stifle the Golden Cup before its inception. The event is the idea of a group of Spanish businessmen who want 24 clubs to be playing in two divisions in midweek by the 2004-05 season. But the Uefa chief executive, Gerhard Aigner, said after a Uefa executive committee meeting in Athens yesterday: "This is one of those ideas that is regularly raised but the present economic market is not exactly asking for such an idea."

Celtic's attempt to sign Milan Rapaic and Stanislav Varga is likely to be blocked by Fifa, world football's governing body. The Celtic manager, Martin O'Neill, hoped to sign the Croat World Cup forward Rapaic and the Slovak centre-back Varga – who have been on trial at Parkhead this week – as free agents. Both players were given pay-offs after leaving Fenerbahce and Sunderland respectively but Fifa may prevent any move to Parkhead because they broke their existing contracts.