SWAZILAND
Mbabane Highlanders retained their Swazi league title on Sunday, seeing off their closest rivals in a controversial finish to the season.

Highlanders, needing a draw to win the league for the second successive year, beat second-placed Mbabane Swallows 1-0.

The goal came in the 16th minute through Menzi Sibiya, though the Swallows had two goals disallowed in a tense game.

The Swallows needed a win to wrest the title from the Highlanders but went into the match without key midfielder

Wilton Magaya, arrested a week before the game after allegedly stabbing a man to death at a nightclub. He is being held on murder charges.

GHANA
Defending champions Hearts of Oak put their shock defeat in the first round of the African Champions League behind them to win their opening match of the new domestic season on Sunday.

Ishmael Addo's early goal gave Hearts, winners of the last three Ghanaian championships, a 1-0 win over Goldfields.

Hearts were sensationally eliminated from the first round of the Champions League when they lost 5-1 away at Etoile du Congo in Brazzaville on April 22.

Hearts will represent Africa at the FIFA Club World Championship in Spain in July and August.

ZAMBIA
Fulham youth team player Bruce Lwando has seized the initiative to try and further his international football claims by advertising his talents.

The 18-year-old, who has been at the English first division champions for three years, has written to newspapers in Zambia to introduce himself and say he is keen to play for his native country.

'If I can play reserve football at Fulham, then I should be good enough to either play for the Zambian national side or the under-23s,' he wrote in an e-mail, published on Monday.

'I have eyes for goals and I am a very hard worker for the team,' Lwando added.

KENYA
Kenya premier league club Nzoia Sugar are accusing football federation officials of deliberately trying to sabotage their ambitions this season by arranging nine successive home fixtures for them, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

'Our belief is that this is a deliberate move to frustrate us,' club chairman Fred Wanyonyi told reporters.

'The fixtures should be balanced such that teams play successive home and away matches.'

He demanded an immediate change to the schedule. But the Kenya Football Federation said they drew up the fixtures only after Nzoia complained of too many successive away matches.

'We were only trying to balance it for them,' said spokesman Dan Murunga.