Football briefs: Boyce | Champions League | Levante | Mancini

BRITAIN’S Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce will oppose a threatened move by Sepp Blatter to cut the number of European places at future World Cups.

Boyce, from Northern Ireland, insists Europe’s 13 spots out of 32 is a fair proportion given the continent’s influence on football. Fifa president Blatter raised the prospect of a cut for Europe and South America – which has up to five spots – in a speech to Asian associations yesterday.

• Fans of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will have to rely on the luck of the draw to secure seats for the Champions League final after demand massively exceeded supply.

The finalists will split 50,000 tickets for the final at Wembley on 25 May even though the total capacity will be 86,000. Prices start at £60 per ticket and go up to £330 for the top category, a shock for German supporters who are used to paying much lower prices for Bundesliga matches.

• Levante have vowed to fully co-operate with any authority planning to investigate allegations of match-fixing in their home Primera Division clash with Deportivo La Coruna on 13 April. Deportivo boosted their survival hopes with a 4-0 win over fellow strugglers Levante, with the match now under suspicion of match-fixing. Levante issued a statement last night backing the players and promised to assist any inquiry.

• Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has hinted that winger Scott Sinclair’s future could lie away from the club. The 24-year-old has started just three games since his £6.2million move from Swansea last August. Sinclair has been linked with a return to Swansea ahead of City’s trip to the Liberty Stadium this weekend. Mancini said: “This situation with Sinclair is difficult because I didn’t give him a lot of chances to play. He is very unlucky.”

• Swedish club AIK’s league match against rivals IFK Gothenburg will go ahead on Monday despite the club being in mourning after the sudden death of goalkeeper Ivan Turina this week. The 32-year-old Turina was found dead in bed at his Stockholm apartment on Thursday morning. The club’s Karlberg training ground has become an impromptu shrine to the Croatian, with fans leaving candles, scarves, flowers and photos in his memory.