JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Ecuador will play six more friendlies in the run up to the World Cup - against South Africa, Yugoslavia, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Senegal and Japanese side Tottori, the country's football federation said on April 2.

Ecuador will play its next warmup for Korea and Japan against South Africa in Murcia, Spain on April 17. Coached by Colombian Hernan Dario Gomez, Ecuador will then play two matches in the United States, on May 8 against Yugoslavia and on May 11 against AC Milan. They meet Atlitico Madrid in the Spanish capital on May 14 before arriving in Japan a week later.

A friendly against Senegal is planned for May 23 and against Tottori on May 26. Uruguay will face Thailand in a World Cup warmup match on May 18 in Bangkok. The match comes after their May 8 date with Ghana in Montevideo, and the game against the United States May 12 in Washington. Uruguay has still not decided whether to take up Brazil's offer of a friendly on April 21. ...

KIRCH BANKRUPTCY

The bankrupt German media group Kirch moved on April 8 to protect live television broadcasts from the 2002 football World Cup by transferring all its holdings in the World Cup television rights to a Swiss-based company, KirchSport AG, FIFA said.

"It means we will be able to ensure that all broadcast operations regarding 2002 will take place as planned," Andreas Herren, a spokesman for world football's governing body, said in a statement. FIFA hopes that by moving Kirch's holding companies for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup television rights to Switzerland, the FIFA-related side of the media giant's business will avoid insolvency proceedings officially filed in Germany.

"As part of these precautions, the FIFA-related assets as well as the implementation and operational management of the World Cup broadcast rights have been combined in a group of companies now falling under KirchSport AG, which is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland," Herren said.

ITV FAILURE

The Football League says it has demanded a meeting with the owners of ITV Digital, Granada and Carlton Communications to discuss the disputed rights deal to broadcast football matches. League spokesman John Nagle said that key members of the football clubs met the administrators of ITV Digital briefly on April 3 to make the request.

The troubled pay-TV firm ITV Digital called in administrators Deloitte & Touche last week after failing to renegotiate its contract to broadcast league matches. The Football League, representing the 72 English clubs below the 20-team elite Premier League, has maintained a threat to sue ITV Digital and its owners for half a billion pounds should a compromise not be reached. Failure to strike a deal could threaten the future of many clubs in the league which rely on broadcast cash for survival and have already committed much of the money they were expecting to receive under the original three-year deal.

The league is insisting ITV Digital pays by August $89.25 million ($151.7 million), half of what it still owes under the terms of the original #315 million agreement. The league says it will then negotiate on the final payment. The pay TV company has offered just #50 million in total for the remainder of the contract. Failure to reach a compromise could endanger the existence of both the networks and many lower division clubs.

NAMES AND NOTES IN THE NEWS BRAZIL: Paulo Roberto Falcao has been appointed the Brazilian national team9s managing director. The Brazilian Football Federation chairman Ricardo Teixeira offered Falcao this post back in the last February. However, the latter asked for some time to solve his problems with TV Globo channel where he worked as a commentator. Falcao will work with Brazil manager Luis Felipe Scolari before and during the 2002 World Cup. ...

CZECH REPUBLIC: Sparta Prague's Czech coach Jaroslav Hrebik has been fired, club president Vlastimil Kostal said in a press conference April 4. The 53-year-old Hrebik, who had led Sparta since last summer, has been replaced by assistant Vitezslav Lavicka. Sparta, knocked out in the second phase of the Champions League, lost its leader's position in the Czech championship after a 2-0 defeat on March 30 against FK Jablonec. ...

ENGLAND: Blackburn Rovers boss Graeme Souness was banned from the touchline for one match and fined 10,000 pounds ($14,000) after being found guilty of misconduct by the Football Association (FA). Souness was charged with using "offensive and insulting language" towards referee Graham Barber during Rovers' 1-0 FA Cup fifth round defeat by Middlesbrough on February 15. Leicester City has promoted Micky Adams to the manager's job and moved current boss Dave Bassett to the role of director of football. Adams, the assistant manager, will take over at the relegation-threatened club.

Adams, who becomes Leicester's third manager since Martin O'Neill left to join Celtic 21 months ago, will be in control for the club's last four premier league games.

GERMANY: Bayern Munich has signed a six-year cooperation deal with Audi automobile company. Bayern vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said after the ceremony of contract signing that, "We preferred Audi as a partner." Audi chairman Martin Winterkorn said Bayern is to get no more than E15 million( $13 million) annually.

IRELAND: Manchester United's Roy Keane has been officially diagnosed with a torn hamstring and will be out for up to six weeks. Keane, stretchered off in the first leg 2-0 Champions League victory at Spaniards Deportivo La Coruna, will miss both legs of the Champions League semifinal and may even be doubtful for the final itself on May 15 should United make it. Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy could also be sweating over Keane's fitness for the World Cup if the midfielder is out for the full six weeks

ITALY: Coach Fabio Capello has extended his contract with Italian champions AS Roma by two years until 2005. The 55-year-old, who has guided the club to within sight of a second successive championship crown, finally signed the deal after several weeks of negotiations with club president Franco Sensi Italian international striker Vincenzo Montella has signed a new contract to stay with league champions AS Roma until June 2006. Montella's current deal is until 2004, but Roma was keen to put an end to rumors that the 28-year-old could leave because he believed that coach Fabio Capello favored Argentinian striker Gabriel Batistuta.

MEXICO: Mixico captain Claudio Suarez, the most capped international in the world -- broke his leg during practice for the April 3 friendly with the United States, jeopardizing his chances for the World Cup. He will need 6-to-8 weeks to recover, team spokesman Ignacio Matus. The 33-year-old Suarez was running for the ball Tuesday night April 2 when he slipped and twisted his right leg. Team doctors were evaluating the severity of the break and had not yet decided whether the squad's marquee player will remain on the roster.

USA: Brad Friedel played another 90 minutes in goal, as Blackburn earned a 2-0 win over Southampton on April 1. In his 32 league starts, Freidel is 9-15-8 with a GAA of 1.34. Kasey Keller made his third consecutive league appearance for Tottenham, helping them to a 2-1 win over Leeds United on April 1 before falling 2-1 to Arsenal on Saturday. In his five league starts, Keller is 2-1-2 with a 1.00 GAA.