Dortmund hopes of breaking record dashed

Leaders Borussia Dortmund failed to break the record for the most points in the first half of the Bundesliga season after conceding a late goal in a 1-0 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday just before the winter break.

• Striking score: A goal from Eintracht's Theofanis Gekas takes the points.

Dortmund, who had won 14 of their 16 previous games, losing just once, needed only a point to equal Bayern Munich's 44 points from 17 games in the 2005/6 season but with a better goal difference.

Bundesliga top scorer Theofanis Gekas scuppered Dortmund's plans with a classy left-footed finish four minutes from time for his 14th goal of the season.

Schalke 04 won their third game in a row when they beat Cologne 3-0 courtesy of a Raul hat-trick to move up to tenth place while VfL Wolfsburg needed a stoppage time goal to snatch a 2-2 draw with Hoffenheim after being 2-0 down.

Bayer Leverkusen, currently second on 32 points, host Freiburg today. Champions Bayern Munich travel to VfB Stuttgart this afternoon, the hosts' first league match under new coach Bruno Labbadia.

n French Football Federation's (FFF) interim president Fernand Duchaussoy was confirmed at his post yesterday after an FFF general assembly.

Duchaussoy will have the difficult mission of restoring the image of French football and the credibility of its federation following France's World Cup debacle.

"South Africa left the image of a France team in crisis, both morally and sportingly. Today, it is on the way to reconstruction and even redemption", he said prior to the vote.

The French FA has been hit by two departures in the last three weeks. General director Jacques Lambert resigned in November to take a management position in the Euro 2016 organising committee while former France defender Lilian Thuram quit his post as a council member last week.

The Federation is also locked in a battle with Domenech who is seeking 2.9 million euros ($3.86m) in compensation for unfair dismissal.

Duchaussoy, 67, had been deputising for former president Jean-Pierre Escalettes who resigned in late June. He was the only candidate after vice-president Noel Le Graet stepped down on Friday.

n The Swedish football league trophy underwent keyhole surgery on Friday, revealing a secret inscription that will not please former UEFA President Lennart Johansson.

Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter had reported that Ingemar Eklund, a soccer-mad silversmith who died recently, had engraved the words "Bajen forever" on the inside of the trophy, "Bajen" being the nickname of his favourite club Hammarby IF.

The Swedish Football Association was determined to end rumours about the inscription and national team doctor Magnus Forssblad was asked to conduct the 'operation'. Under the watchful gaze of the media, Forssblad drilled a small hole in the trophy before feeding in the arthroscopic camera and revealed the inscription: "Djurgarden are best!" along with four names. Djurgarden are a rival of Johansson's favourite side AIK and have won the trophy three times since it was introduced in 2001. The inscription would now be removed, Swedish FA media officer Jonas Nystedt said.