Marcello Lippi has been sacked as coach of Inter Milan following a poor start to the season.

Inter fell 2-1 to Reggina in their opening Serie A match on Sunday and lost to Swedish club Helsingborgs in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

Lippi had previously led rivals Juventus to three Italian championships and had been at Inter since June 1999. Assistant coach Narciso Pezzotti will replace him in a caretaker capacity.

FIFA yesterday banned Yugoslavia from staging international matches at home until further notice because of the country's current political climate.

The FIFA World Cup Organising Committee, chaired by Lennart Johansson, took the decision to postpone World Cup qualifying matches against Russia in Belgrade on Saturday and against the Faroe Islands next Wednesday after consulting the three national associations.