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Sport Briefs

■ Soccer
Real Madrid release film
Real Madrid is all set to become the first ever football club to release a full-length film for the cinema. Real: La Pelicula ("Real the Film") opens in cinemas throughout Spain today. The club hopes that the film will then be screened in different countries. "We're sure the film will be a great success," Real president Florentino Perez said on Wednesday. "We hope that the film will confirm our position as the greatest club in the world." The stars of the film are Real's famed "galactico" stars, world-famous players such as Zinedine Zidane, Raul Gonzalez, Ronaldo and David Beckham. Real have refused to reveal many details about the film, but the idea is to explain the popularity of the club across five continents. The central character of the film is a history teacher called Tomas, who arrives in Madrid to teach and then tries to explain the popularity of the club.

■ Tennis
Lendl, Connolly honored
Three-time US Open champions Ivan Lendl and Maureen Connolly will be inducted into the US Open Court of Champions. The attraction next month honors former US Open champions. Lendl won the title from 1985-'87 and appeared in eight straight finals. His 27 consecutive victories at the tournament from 1985-'88 set an Open Era record. Connolly became the first woman to win the Grand Slam when she took her third straight US championship title in 1953 at the age of 18. Her career ended the next year when she injured her leg while riding a horse, and she died in 1968 from cancer at 34. "Ivan Lendl and Maureen Connolly are two of the greatest champions ever to compete at the US Open and US Championships, and we look forward to celebrating their remarkable achievements and legacies," USTA president Franklin Johnson said. "Their historic performances at this tournament have helped make the US Open one of the world's premier sporting events."

■ Rugby
No drug tests for Fiji
Fiji's rugby players will not be drug-tested before their end-of-season tour to Europe, despite coach Wayne Pivac's warning of a new hard line on drug use, the Fiji Times reported yesterday. Pivac said he was not reversing his harsh stand against drugs, promised when winger Vilimoni Delasau tested positive to cannabis after Fiji's test against New Zealand in June. The New Zealand-born Fiji coach said the cost of blanket drug-testing was too exorbitant for the cash-strapped island union but he hoped players would still heed an anti-drugs message. The board of the Fiji Rugby Union discussed Delasau's case at its weekly board meeting on Tuesday, at Pivac's prompting. Delasau, the former Canterbury Crusaders winger, now based in France, was fined NZ$500 (US$350) and reprimanded by a New Zealand judicial committee for his second cannabis offense.

■ Soccer
Italy to use more TV replays
TV replays will be used more extensively in the Italian league this season to determine bans for players. "Severe punishment" will be handed out to players who simulate offenses that result in penalties or expulsions, the Italian soccer federation said on Wednesday. It will also be used to see if players scored with hand balls. Teams that fall victim to such incidents can request that video evidence be examined by league disciplinary judges. The new plan mainly concerns incidents that were not called by the referee during matches.

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