■ ENGLAND
Cardiff cause FA rule review
Cardiff cannot presently qualify for Europe if they win the FA Cup but that could all change after the Football Association announced they would look again at their rulebook. As things stand Cardiff, who face fellow Championship side Barnsley in a Wembley semi-final next month, would not qualify for the UEFA Cup if they won the FA Cup because Welsh clubs are only eligible to qualify through their own competitions. UEFA president Michel Platini has promised to intervene to help Cardiff should they continue a season of Cup shocks by lifting the trophy and the FA are now reviewing their own rule. "In light of Cardiff City's success in reaching the FA Cup semi-finals, the Football Association is considering its position on European qualification for the winners of the FA Cup," an FA spokesman said on Thursday.
■ PERU
Players robbed by gang
The players of leading Peruvian side Cienciano were held up and robbed by armed men as they were collecting their wages, a police official said on Thursday. The victims, who were forced to lie on the floor during the raid, included Peru internationals Juan Carlos Bazalar and forward William Chiroque. The robbers were reported to have made off with US$85,000 in cash as well as the players' wallets and mobile phones. The incident occurred at the club's headquarters in the Andean city of Cusco on Wednesday, the day after Cienciano had beaten fellow Peruvians Coronel Bolognesi 1-0 in a South American Libertadores Cup match. "At the moment that the players were receiving their wages, four men entered and surrounded the cashier," said Cusco police official Juan Auccahuaqui.
■ ENGLAND
Fans in train riot sent to jail
Soccer fans who charged through train carriages and attacked rivals in a pre-planned riot have been jailed and banned from games for up to 10 years. The violence happened before a game between neighbors Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic in September and police arrested fans whose ages ranged from 16 to 44. Prosecutors told Judge Stephen Robbins on Thursday that some 30 Palace followers trapped Charlton supporters on the train, punching, kicking and head-butting them. A father and his two grown-up sons were repeatedly punched, one of the sons left with blood pouring down his face and was later taken to hospital with a suspected fractured nose. "This was sickening behavior, thuggery, organized violence on a train on members of the public," Robbins said at Southwark Crown Court. He jailed two fans, Dominic Goodridge and Harvey Neenan, each for three years and four months. Three more were sentenced to two-and-a-half years and two to two years.
■ BRAZIL
Lightning strikes midfielder
A soccer match in Brazil was suspended after lightning struck one of the players. The lightning struck midfielder Gilvan near midfield in the 63rd minute of the match between Novo Horizonte and Atletico Goianiense in the Goias state championship on Wednesday. Gilvan immediately collapsed and was taken unconscious to hospital, where he was treated and released. "I woke up in the hospital," the Novo Horizonte player said. "The pain was too strong. I'm relieved to have survived this." The injury prompted the referee to suspend the match, which was finished on Thursday and won by Atletico 4-2. The game was even at 2-2 when it was interrupted.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with