NBA basketball players are keen to end a row with management that has cancelled games but will not do so "at any price", Spanish LA Lakers star Pau Gasol said in comments published Friday.

"We are losing money but we think this is a necessary evil to make the owners understand that we players are all united," the seven-foot-tall forward-center from Barcelona told Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

The head of the English Premier League has dismissed fears of a plot to scrap relegation and promotion, branding the suggestion as "nonsensical scare-mongering."

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore told Sky Sports News that there was "absolutely no appetite" amongst the top-flight clubs to transform the league into a closed shop.

Talks between NBA players and owners broke down on Thursday, raising the prospect that more games will be cancelled after the two sides failed to resolve financial differences.

Thirty hours of negotiations over the past three days, under the eye of federal mediator George Cohen, had raised some hopes that the parties had made progress toward agreement over two key issues: the division of revenues and a salary cap system.

Real Madrid will try to put newly-rich Malaga in their place on Saturday when the aristocrats of La Liga travel to the sixth-placed side who are looking to upset the existing balance of power in Spain.

Malaga spent most of last season aiming to avoid relegation but the arrival of billionaire Qatari Sheikh Abdullah al-Thani has led to an influx of new players and bigger aspirations.

Inter Milan tackle Chievo at the San Siro this weekend hoping to transfer their European form into the domestic arena.

Inter have won their last two Champions League ties despite facing tricky away games but at home they have been in crisis.

Germany star Jerome Boateng wants to make sure Bayern Munich's defense keeps the team's impressive unbeaten run going at Hanover on Sunday.

Bayern's 4-0 hammering of Hertha Berlin at home last weekend opened a five-point gap at the top of the Bundesliga, but they conceded a rare goal in the 1-1 draw with Napoli on Tuesday in the Champions League.

Manchester may not yet be, as a local newspaper columnist recently declared, "the football capital of the world." But for 90 minutes at Old Trafford on Sunday, it will certainly feel like it.

A global audience of several hundred million will turn their gaze to the "Theater of Dreams" as Manchester City attempt to underscore their emergence as the rising power of English football against Manchester United.

The Girls Football Academy (GFA) will be opening its doors in Lebanon as a first step for women players in the Middle East, in an attempt to promote the female athletes and improve their skills in Lebanon.

The Academy's owners, Nadia Assaf and Walid Arakji said that it is dedicated "exclusively to females who would like to play and learn how to play football at any age."

Cristiano Ronaldo will try to rediscover his scoring touch when Real Madrid visits Malaga in the Spanish league, and Barcelona looks to extend its best ever start to a season against Sevilla.

Madrid, which trails Barcelona by one point, could face former players Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Julio Baptista at Malaga’s La Rosaleda stadium.

UEFA has imposed a ban on smoking and tobacco advertising at next year’s European Championship.

UEFA says the ban will apply in and around all eight host stadiums in Poland and Ukraine.