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■ Soccer
DFB bans more referees
Two more referees face lifetime bans for their parts in Germany's match-fixing scandal. The German soccer federation (DFB) on Tuesday charged Juergen Jansen and Wieland Ziller with two counts of plotting to manipulate games that Jansen took charge of. One game was Kaiserslautern's 3-0 win over Freiburg on Nov. 27, 2004, in the first division. The other was six days earlier -- a 1-0 second-division win for Dynamo Dresden over Unterhaching. The DFB said both referees received money for plotting to fix games for the benefit of a Croatian gambling ring. "Because of the way both games developed, Jansen did not have to knowingly make any wrong calls," Horst Hilpert, head of the DFB's control committee, said. The scandal broke in January when referee Robert Hoyzer admitted receiving money to rig games. The DFB banned Hoyzer from soccer for life last month. The charges against Jansen and Ziller come the week after the man suspected of masterminding the plot began cooperating with authorities and gave new evidence.

■ Football
Racial diversity improves
Racial diversity within NFL coaching staffs and front offices is improving while its players' union continued to excel, according to a University of Central Florida study. Richard Lapchick of UCF's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport gave the NFL grades of B for race and a D-plus for gender, although the league has a higher percentage of female executives at the very top than the other major US men's sports leagues. Two years ago, those grades were B-minus and D-minus. The NFLPA maintained A-pluses for race and gender, the best among the professional players unions reviewed. Almost two-thirds of the positions on the NFLPA's board were occupied by blacks, led by executive director Gene Upshaw. That figure is in line with the racial makeup of the league's players, 69 percent of whom are black. The NFL got an A-plus at the assistant coach level. Last season, 30 percent of the league's assistants were black, with 12 black coordinators.

■ Soccer
Graeme Le Saux retires
Former England left-back Graeme Le Saux retired from soccer on Tuesday, a week after his Southampton club was relegated from the Premier League. Le Saux, 36, played 36 times for England. "I decided at the beginning of the season that this would probably be my last," Le Saux said. "I would much rather have retired seeing Southampton stay in the Premiership, but it was just not meant to be. Having constant and intensive treatment ahead of every game, my body knows how hard I've tried this season." Le Saux played much of his career with Chelsea in the Premier League, leaving the club two years ago for Southampton.

■ Club owner
Las Vegas links found
The NFL asked Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer on Tuesday to explain Manchester United's relationship with a Las Vegas casino, a venture that could run afoul of the league's policies concerning gambling. The request came during the pro gridiron league's spring meetings, the owners' first gathering since Glazer's US$1.47 billion takeover of the world's most valuable soccer club. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said wants to know more about a proposed resort and casino that would be built near Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium as a joint venture between the club and Las Vegas Sands Corp.

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