Mali's World Cup qualifying campaign was thrown into turmoil on Wednesday when their coach Patrice Carteron signed a two-year contract with ambitious Congolese club TP Mazembe Englebert.

Mali, who under Frenchman Carteron finished third at this year's African Nations Cup in South Africa, have 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Benin on June 9 and June 16.

"We consider Patrice Carteron the coach of Mali," the country's football federation president Hamadoun Kola Cisse said in a French radio interview.

"He is under contract to us until next year but by going and signing another contract he exposes himself to sanction," Cisse added.

Democratic Republic of Congo side TP Mazembe will appoint a new coach in next two days, BBC Sport understands.

The reigning league champions have been without a coach since Lamine Ndiaye was switched to technical director.

Mali coach Patrice Carteron is believed to be Mazembe's top target.

The 42-year-old Frenchman attended TP Mazembe's home victory over Liga Muculmana in the Confederation Cup on Sunday and was sat next to the club's owner Moise Katumbi.

Carteron, who has formerly managed Cannes and Dijon, has been in charge of Mali's Eagles since July 2012.

Saint George are on the verge of becoming the first team from Ethiopia to reach the group stages of an African continental club competition.

The team from Addis Ababa beat visiting Egyptian side ENPPI 2-0 on Sunday in the first leg of their play-off match for the Confederation Cup group stages.

Shimeles Bekele opened the scoring for Saint George after just four minutes and Abebaw Butako added the second 22 minutes later.

Also on Sunday former African champions TP Mazembe had a comfortable 4-0 win over Mozambique's Liga Muculmana in Lubumbashi.

Africa Cup of Nations star Sunday Mba will adjust his sights to the Confederation Cup this weekend as the contest for group places begins.

Mba's Nigerian club side Enugu Rangers host two-time winners CS Sfaxien of Tunisia on Sunday in the highlight of eight first leg play-off fixtures.

The 24-year-old midfielder scored the only goal of the Cup of Nations final to give the Super Eagles victory over against Burkina Faso in Soweto last February.

He also struck the winner in the shock quarter-final triumph over hot pre-tournament favourites Ivory Coast in South Africa.

Ivory Coast striker Arouna Kone was among the stars as Wigan stunned Manchester City 1-0 at the weekend to lift the FA Cup trophy for the first time.

The African star with the blond dyed hair troubled City throughout with his running and now turns his attention to keeping the cup winners in the Premier League.

Unfashionable Wigan visit Arsenal on Tuesday and host Aston Villa on Sunday, needing to win both ganes to be sure of avoiding relegation.

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Arouna Kone helped Wigan Athletic to a historic English FA Cup triumph on Saturday after they edged compatriot Yaya Toure's Manchester City 1:0 in the final.

Wigan's determination to lift the crown for the first time in their history was helped by the sending off of Argentine defender Pablo Zabaleta in the 84th minute.

Kone and Yaya played every moment of the thrilling game which was decided in the 91st minute when substitute Ben Watson headed home from a corner kick.

Toure came close to scoring early on, but his shot was turned away by Spain's U-21 star Joel Robles who was in goal for Wigan.

South Africa have moved up six places in the Fifa world rankings to break into the top 10 of African teams.

Bafana Bafana are the ninth best team in their zone and the 56th best team in the world according to world football's governing body.

Top three teams Cote d'voire, Ghana and Mali had no changes, while African champions Nigeria crept up the list, reaching 28th place overall, but the improvement does not lift them from fourth place among the teams from their continent.

Equatorial Guinea, the Africa Cup of Nations runners-up, slip to 10th in Africa, while Cameroon are the side to slip out of the top 10.

Nigeria’s last hope in the 2013 CAF Champions League, Enugu Rangers, crashed out after they fell 3-1 at Angola’s Recreativo Libolo on Saturday. The first leg in Nigeria ended in a 0-0 draw.

It took a well-taken free kick from 25 yards by Henry Camara on 17 minutes for the hosts to take the lead.

They extended their lead on 33 minutes when some slack defending from Rangers gave Dario too much space to find the back of the net.

The match remained this way till the end of the first stanza and on resumption of the second half, Rangers upped their game and it was no surprise when they reduced the deficit on 57 minutes as Afcon hero Sunday Mba fired in a 25-yard left-footed shot past Landu in goal for the host.

Lille threw away a massive three-goal advantage to draw 3:3 against visitors Sochaux in the French Ligue 1 on Friday night.

Cote d'Ivoire striker Salomon Kalou netted twice in the opening half to give Lille a 2:0 lead at the break and Montenegro defender Marko Basa made it 3:0 in the 48th minute.

A late rally however saw Sochaux score three goals in eight minutes to snatch a point.

Veteran Mali defender Cedric Kante started the fight-back with a goal on 79 minutes before French midfielder Vincent Nogueira bagged two quick goals in the 83rd and 87th minutes to ensure the draw.

Record four-time African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto'o scored for Russian big spenders Anzhi Makhachkala at the weekend on his return from a knee injury.

However, the Cameroonian star could not prevent Dynamo Moscow fighting back to force a 3-3 draw and leave Anzhi third in the table, 10 points behind leaders CSKA Moscow with five rounds left.

Benin midfielder Stephane Sessegnon was on target for the second consecutive week, with his late first-half goal giving lowly Sunderland a 1-0 home victory over Everton.

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