UDINE (ITALY): Udinese fired coach Luigi Delneri on Tuesday and immediately replaced him with Massimo Oddo.
The 41-year-old Oddo has less than two years of coaching experience. He led Pescara to promotion to Serie A in 2016, but was fired the following February.
"Massimo Oddo is an up-and-coming coach and we believe he'll do very well here at Udinese," club sporting director Manuel Gerolin said.
Udinese has only 12 points from 12 matches this season and lost at home to Cagliari on Sunday, leaving it three points above the relegation zone in Serie A.
"The club hasn't given me any specific targets other than to work hard on implementing my soccer philosophy," said Oddo, who won the World Cup with Italy as a player. "What you see on the field will be the result of the ideas I have in my head."
Oddo's first match in charge will be at home against Serie A leader Napoli on Sunday.
Delneri's job had already been in danger after Udinese's 6-2 loss to Juventus last month, but two consecutive wins had earned the 67-year-old coach some respite.
Delneri had been in charge for just over a year and steered Udinese to 13th place last season.
It is the fourth managerial change in Serie A this season after Cagliari, Benevento and Genoa.
ZURICH: Diego Maradona will be reunited on stage with World Cup rival Gary Lineker at the draw in Moscow next week.
Maradona will represent Argentina in the State Kremlin Palace, where all eight World Cup-winning nations will send a playing great to assist in the draw, FIFA said Tuesday.
Maradona captained Argentina to the 1986 title, eliminating Lineker's England in the quarterfinals with the help of his "Hand of God" goal in Mexico City.
Minutes later, Maradona scored one of the best goals in World Cup history, before Lineker pulled England close in a 2-1 loss. Maradona was voted player of the tournament and Lineker was the top scorer with six goals.
Lineker will host the 32-nation ceremony on Dec. 1. England will be officially represented by Gordon Banks, goalkeeper on the 1966 team.
The other draw assistants are Laurent Blanc, Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Diego Forlan, Carles Puyol, and Nikita Simonyan for host Russia.
Former Germany forward Miroslav Klose will bring the World Cup trophy on stage.