INS

• Marcello Lippi, who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy, has come out of retirement to become coach of China. The 68-year-old quit in 2014 after winning a third successive Chinese Super League title with Guangzhou Evergrande and now replaces Gao Hongbo, who resigned after a 2-0 defeat in Uzbekistan.

OUTS

•  Sylvain Ripoll has been sacked by Lorient with the club rooted to the bottom of the Ligue 1 table.

• Rudi Garcia agreed a three-year deal to take over at Marseille, on the same day his Roma contract was terminated by mutual consent.

• Ljupko Petrovic, who coached Red Star Belgrade to European Cup Final glory in 1991, quit unbeaten Bulgarian leaders Levski Sofia an hour before their match against Beroe Stara Zagora on Saturday. The 69-year-old Serb claimed he was “working under too much stress, in a bad atmosphere, I’m risking my health”.

• Artur Petrosyan replacing Varuzhan Sukiasyan as coach of Armenia after they lost their first three World Cup qualifiers.