SPORTS BRIEFS

Argentina coach

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP):

Argentine football federation president Julio Grondona says it would take something "very large" for interim national team coach Sergio Batista not to be appointed the permanent replacement for Diego Maradona. Grondona also suggested in a radio interview yesterday that midfielder Juan Ramon Riquelme would return to playing for the national team. The Boca Juniors playmaker was left out of the squad by Maradona, part of a personal feud between the two.

In his first match earlier this month, Batista led Argentina to a 1-0 victory over Ireland.

Argentine's remaining friendlies this year are September 7 vs Spain in Buenos Aires; October 8 vs Japan in Tokyo; November 17 vs Brazil in Doha, Qatar, and December 19 vs Brazil in Buenos Aires.

Ibrahimovic talks

BARCELONA, Spain (AP):

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani says negotiations over the transfer of Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the Serie A club are ongoing. Galliani emerged from a lunch with Barcelona president Sandro Rosell to tell Spanish media that "negotiations are open but there's still a long way to go from them being open to being closed".

Milan is reportedly prepared to take the Sweden striker on loan while Barcelona wants to sell him in a full transfer. Ibrahimovic played for Juventus and Inter Milan before joining the Spanish champion last season in a $66-million deal that sent striker Samuel Eto'o to Inter. He scored 21 goals in all competitions, but often struggled to fit into Barcelona's intricate passing schemes.

Semenya on team

JOHANNESBURG (AP):

Caster Semenya has been included in South Africa's team for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October. The 19-year-old 800-metre world champion was part of the country's athletics team announced yesterday by South Africa Olympic Committee president Gideon Sam. Semenya was one of 32 athletes, swimmers, cyclists and rugby sevens players added to South Africa's initial Commonwealth Games team, which was announced last month.

Sam said: "I am very happy to see the return of Caster Semenya to duty for South Africa."

Semenya has won all three of her comeback races since she was cleared to run by the IAAF following an 11-month break because of a gender dispute.

Daunting task

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago will face a daunting task in their group stage campaign of next month's FIFA 2010 Under-17 women's tournament scheduled to be held here. They have been drawn in Group A alongside defending champions Korea DPR, Chile and Nigeria, but coach Even Pellerud played down the nature of the challenge noting they were looking forward to the outing.