By PA SportsTicker

(Recasts with Atletico reaction, changes dateline, byline)

Atletico Madrid must play its next Champions League home match in an empty stadium because of its fans’ racist abuse of opposing players. UEFA imposed the punishment Friday after investigating allegations Atletico fans were racist and violent at an Oct. 1 match against French club Marseille. A UEFA appeal panel said Atletico must play Dutch club PSV Eindhoven at Vicente Calderon Stadium on Nov.

Diego Maradona, expected to
be confirmed as Argentina’s new coach on Tuesday, has likened
his future team to a grimy Rolls Royce.

Benjamin Monterroso was hired as Guatemala’s national soccer coach for the third time Friday, taking over a team on the brink of elimination during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. He replaces Ramon Madariaga, a Honduran who was fired after a 2-1 loss to Cuba. Guatemala’s only chance of advancing to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying is to beat the United States at Commerce City, Colo., on…

Bayer Leverkusen went back to the
top of the Bundesliga for at least one night after a 2-0 home
win over VfL Wolfsburg on Friday.

Atletico Madrid’s
two-match home stadium ban for European games has been reduced
to one match played behind closed doors following an appeal,
UEFA said in a statement on Friday.

Tottenham welcome table-toppers Liverpool to the soon-to-be-demolished White Hart Lane. Harry’s got their…

Ukraine’s financial crisis is threatening the country’s ability to host the 2012 European Championship because construction projects have stalled due to a liquidity crunch. The chairman of Ukraine’s organizing committee, Evhen Chervonenko, told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that construction has frozen at about 80 percent of the hotels needed to be built for the event, as banks are…

Alex Ferguson has
told Carlos Tevez not to waste energy trying to prove he is good
enough for Manchester United.