■ Soccer
Wolves keep cocaine striker
Wolverhampton striker Chris Cornes will remain with the club, despite his six-month ban for testing positive for cocaine. Wolverhampton chief executive Jez Moxey said on Tuesday that the club condemned the use of banned substances but, after discussions with Cornes, decided not to sack him. "However, we have made it clear to him that he could be dismissed if he is unable to demonstrate to the club and its supporters that he is a model professional from this point onwards," Moxey said. Cornes, 19, was banned by the Football Association on Monday for testing positive for cocaine in a random drug test taken in February. He denies ever knowingly taking a banned substance. Cornes will be fined and will work with the club's Football in the Community department during his suspension when he isn't training.
■ Soccer
Kirkland on loan to Wigan
Wigan signed Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland on a six-month loan on Tuesday. "Chris is a top quality goalkeeper, he is a very imposing figure who can command his box, and he combines that with a tremendous shot-stopping ability," Wigan coach Paul Jewell told Wigan's Web site. Kirkland, a former England Under-21 international, spent last season on loan at West Bromwich Albion. The 25-year-old moved to Liverpool in August 2001 from Coventry. Last season, Mike Pollitt was Wigan's No. 1 goalkeeper, with John Filan making 19 appearances. Both are still at the club.
■ Swimming
No early Melbourne finals
Finals at next year's World Swimming Championships in Melbourne will be held in the evening, not in the morning as world body FINA had considered, organizers said yesterday. The organizing committee, working with the Victoria state government and FINA, confirmed the program for the championships with heats starting at 10am and semifinals and finals beginning at 7pm. American broadcaster NBC has strongly lobbied FINA to hold finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the morning to allow them to be shown in prime-time in the US. FINA then considered holding morning finals at the Melbourne world championships on a trial basis. The decision to stick to an evening format came as a relief to swimmers and organizers, including Australian Swimming chief executive Glenn Tasker, who applauded the decision. The International Olympic Committee will decide next month whether to program morning finals at the 2008 Beijing games.
■ Soccer
Portugal players must pay
Portugal's government on Tuesday rejected a proposal that the national soccer team be exempt from paying tax on their World Cup bonuses. Each player received 50,000 euros (US$64,000) for having reached the semi-finals. "At a moment when the country has to make sacrifices I think those sacrifices must be made by all," Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos told reporters. "I think that public recognition for the good results obtained should be enough for those who carry out with professionalism and dedication a job which they are supposed to do," he added. Earlier on Tuesday the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, Gilberto Madail, was quoted as saying in business daily Jornal de Negocios that he would seek the tax break from the government for the 23 players.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB