Soccer: The Aston Villa manager John Gregory and his opposite number at Coventry City Gordon Strachan have agreed a fee for the Moroccan international Moustapha Hadji.
Gregory has turned to the 29year-old midfielder after missing out on Frank Lampard and Hadji's Moroccan teammate Hassan Kachloul.
Villa have agreed to pay £4.5m for Hadji, £500,000 more than the Sky Blues paid for him when he joined them from Deportivo La Coruna two years ago. The deal depends on the player agreeing personal terms and if it goes ahead will begin the expected exodus of players from Highfield Road following City's relegation.
Sunderland should complete the £3m signing of Bordeaux's forward Lilian Laslandes next week, despite late interest from Borussia Dortmund.
Soccer: Inter Milan last night completed the signing of Argentinian defender Nelson Vivas (31) from Arsenal on a two-year contract on a Bosman free transfer.
He made just 19 appearances last season for Arsenal and it has taken him less than a day to pass a medical and agree personal terms with Inter.
Motor sport: Eddie Irvine and German Nick Heidfeld completed just five laps between them as injury forced them out of testing at Silverstone yesterday. Jaguar driver Irvine succumbed to a neck injury after just one lap, while Heidfeld ran four laps before his Sauber team sent him home with headaches affecting his performance.
"I felt a pain in my neck at the race in Monaco," Irvine said. "The pain was addressed afterwards and up until now it had been fine."
Irvine will rest for the remainder of the week but said he would be ready for the European Grand Prix.
Golf: Deirdre Smith spearheaded the Irish challenge in the British women's Open Amateur championship at Ladybank, Scotland, yesterday. The 31-year-old golf shop owner from Dundalk put herself in line for one of the 64 places in the Championship's match-play phase with a two-under par 70. Smith is four strokes adrift of leader and former champion Emma Duggleby. Alison Coffey, who won the St Rule Trophy 10 days ago at St Andrews, returned to Scotland and was not too unhappy despite taking a 75. Dundalk's Yvonne Cassidy produced a steady performance to hand in a oneover par 73. Co Louth's Jenny Gannon and Cork's former Irish Champion Claire Coughlan should both bag qualifying spots after opening rounds of 74 and Wexford's Elaine Dowdall, who carded a 76, also has a reasonable chance. Beaverstown's Martina Gillen (79), Sinead Keane (80) from the Curragh, Castletown's Julie Heselton (81) and Grange's Hazel Kavanagh (81) will all have to move up several gears today if they are to stand a chance of making further progress.
