■ Soccer
Arsenal's Dein gets G14 nod
Arsenal chairman David Dein was on Wednesday named the new president of the G14 group which represents 18 of Europe's richest clubs. The English official, who was a unanimous choice, replaces Roberto Bettega in the role for a two-year mandate. "As G14 president, I hope to build bridges between UEFA [Europe's governing body] and FIFA [the world's governing body]," Dein said in a statement.
■ Soccer
Lawyer to contest Zizou's red
A French lawyer is to contest Zinedine Zidane's World Cup final red card in the French civil courts, a court source said on Wednesday. Mehana Mouhou, a lawyer in Rouen and Paris, wants the red card overturned on a technicality because he claims the fourth official watched video evidence of the French captain's infamous head-butt on Italy defender Marco Materazzi, before bringing it to the referee's attention. France went on to lose the World Cup final on July 9 after a penalty shoot-out.
■ Soccer
UEFA selects final venues
The 2008 and 2009 Champions League finals will be played in Moscow and Rome respectively, European soccer's governing body said on Wednesday. The UEFA Cup finals of those same years will be held in Manchester (2008) and Istanbul (2009), UEFA's executive committee said from their meeting in Slovenia, adding the 2009 European under-21 championships would be hosted by Sweden. The stadiums used in those finals will be Spartak's Luzhniki stadium, Roma and Lazio's Olympic stadium, Manchester City's City of Manchester stadium, and Fenerbahce's Sukru Saracoglu ground.
■ Basketball
Wizards tie down Grunfeld
The Washington Wizards' president of basketball operations, Ernie Grunfeld, has signed a multi-year contract extension, the club said on Wednesday. The team has made the postseason the last two years, a streak the team had not seen since the late 1980s. "From his first day, Ernie has worked tirelessly to improve our team, and everything he has done has been with an eye toward our long term success," team owner Abe Pollin said in a statement. "I'm proud of the direction our team is going, and with two consecutive playoff appearances behind us, our future looks extremely bright.?ashington was 42-40 last season and lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
■ Basketball
Shooting two to stand trial
Two men accused of shooting five Duquesne University basketball players outside a school dance were ordered on Wednesday to stand trial. Derek Lee of Pittsburgh and William Holmes of the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills, both 18, face five counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault and one count of carrying a firearm without a license in the Sept. 17 shootings. Neither is a Duquesne student. A woman who allegedly encouraged the men, Erica Sager, 18, of the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, also was ordered to stand trial. The most seriously injured of the five players, Sam Ashaolu, was moved on Monday from critical care into a rehabilitation at Mercy Hospital. The other four are back on campus.
■ England
ECB wants compensation
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has requested compensation from Pakistan for the loss of revenue stemming from the forfeited fourth test in August. A Pakistan TV station reported that the ECB is attempting to claim ?800,000 pounds (US$1.5 million) from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). "The PCB will contest the claim through its lawyers," PCB chairman Shahryar Khan said on Wednesday without confirming the amount.
■ Pakistan
Younis refuses captaincy
Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has refused to lead his country in the Champions Trophy in India, a Pakistani Cricket Board official said yesterday. The official, who declined to give further details, said Younis had announced his decision at a scheduled news conference in Lahore. Younis was named as the captain after regular skipper Inzaman-ul-Haq was banned for four one-day matches for bringing the game into disrepute after Pakistan refused to take the field on the fourth day of the fourth test against England in August.
■ England
Vaughan eyes Ashes role
Michael Vaughan said yesterday he was hopeful of being fit to play a part in the Ashes series this winter. The 31-year-old has not played Test cricket this year due to a knee injury. He has begun running again and there has been talk he could play in the final two Tests. "Everything would have to go perfectly between now and then but in my mind there is a small window of opportunity," Vaughan told the Daily Mail. "I would have to make runs in Perth and, of course, I would have to stay fit," he said. "It would also depend on the state of the series and how the England management are thinking. But it is definitely what I'm aiming for and definitely a target."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier