May 7 (Reuters) - Sports news in briefs from around the world:
Soccer - The owner of Bulgarian club Levski Sofia sacked coach Stanimir Stoilov and chief executive Nasko Sirakov on Wednesday.
"It was a very difficult decision but one I had to make. I was very pleased with their work but it is about time to change. Stoilov is the best coach in Bulgaria but he needs a new challenge to prove it," owner Todor Batkov told reporters.
Second-placed Levski are 16 points adrift of newly crowned champions CSKA Sofia with two matches remaining.
Soccer - Relegated Metz will have to play behind closed doors when they host Lorient in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
The French League imposed the punishment after Morocco defender Abdeslam Ouaddou, the Valenciennes captain, was racially abused by a fan in a league match at Metz in February. The sanction had been lifted pending an appeal ruling by the French Olympic committee, which upheld the League's decision on Wednesday.
Soccer - Brazilian coach Carlos Roberto Cabral will return as coach of former African champions Esperance just six months after being fired, the Tunisian club said on their Web site (www.est.org.tn).
Cabral, better known as Cabrazinho, is expected to return the club on Thursday after the firing of Youssef Zouaoui.
Athletics - This year's London Marathon winners Martin Lel and Irina Mikitenko will return to the city on May 26 to race in the inaugural London 10,000 metres road race, which will use part of the proposed route of the 2012 Olympic marathon.
Kenyan Lel, who set a London marathon course record last month, and Kazakhstan-born German Mikitenko will lead a strong field for the new race, UK Athletics said in a statement.
Soccer - FIFA has lifted its suspension of the Chad football association (FTFA) following the end of what it said was government interference in the association's internal affairs.
FIFA said it "noted with satisfaction" a decree by the African state's sports minister revoking previous decrees including the dissolution of the FTFA executive committee "in breach of ... FIFA's statutes". They were suspended on March 28. (Editing by Sonia Oxley)
