Former Arsenal and France midfielder Patrick Vieira was appointed as the coach of Manchester City's emerging young stars on Thursday. Vieira had been working as City's football development executive since retiring as a player with the Manchester outfit two years ago and is now in charge of their 'elite development squad'. The 36-year-old's move onto the City coaching staff, which will see him deal with what is effectively the reserve team, follows the sacking of manager Roberto Mancini and a number of his backroom team earlier this week.

The UN food agency and the gastronomic and ecological movement Slow Food signed an agreement on Wednesday for joint work on promoting small farmers and local recipes around the world that they hope will put Africa on the gourmet map. "I call it the gastronomy of liberation," said Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Italy-based movement, holding up an African recipe booklet as a first example of collaboration between the two. Petrini said Africa had seen "gastronomic colonialism" in which local cooking was spurned in favour of British, French or Italian cuisines.

Delio Rossi on Wednesday extended his contract as coach of Sampdoria, tying him to the Serie A club until 2015. Rossi, who took over from Ciro Ferrara just before Christmas, has steered the 'Blucerchiati' to safety in a difficult first season back in the top flight and penned his new deal live on Samp's television channel. "We will have to put up with each other for another two years," club president Edoardo Garrone joked on SampTV.

Caretaker Manchester City manager Brian Kidd says Roberto Mancini's sacking has rocked the club. City overcame their FA Cup final defeat to Wigan Athletic by beating relegated Reading 2-0 at Madejski Stadium on Tuesday night to guarantee they finished second in the Premier League. Goals from Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko were enough for the hosts, who began life without Mancini with a win. But Kidd, City's assistant manager, said the Italian's departure had been tough to take.