■ BANGLADESH
Players booted out
Seven Cameroonian players arriving to play in the country's professional league were kicked into touch by airport officials yesterday. Immigration officers said the players were refused entry and sent home because they had not presented valid documents on their arrival from Dubai. "They had no visa granted by any Bangladesh embassy abroad and also could not show invitations from any Dhaka soccer club in order to attain their arrival visa," said an airport official. A number of African players have been plying their trade in Bangladesh since the country launched a professional league last year.
■ ITALY
Court overturns penalty
Serie A strugglers Cagliari are off the bottom of the table after the federal court of justice overturned a three-point penalty imposed on the Sardinians. Cagliari had been docked points following a dispute with the Italian Football Federation (IFF) after the club took legal action against former player Gianluca Grassadonia, who in a newspaper interview accused Cagliari of doping violations and of having ties to groups of violent supporters. Under IFF rules, however, clubs are obliged to either take their complaints before a sports tribunal or seek IFF clearance before taking such legal action. The Federal court's decision means that in-form Cagliari are now only goal difference away from escaping the bottom three. Empoli now prop up the table with 26 points, behind Reggina on 27 and Cagliari and Livorno on 28.
■ CHINA
Coach fired by e-mail
The Frenchwoman charged with leading China's women's team to the Beijing Olympics has been fired by e-mail, local media reported yesterday. Elisabeth Loisel, who took over as coach in October, had a brief and troubled reign marked by poor results and disputes with Chinese Football Association (CFA) staff. The coach told the China Daily from France that she had received an e-mail from the CFA saying her services were no longer required and had cancelled her planned return to China. "I had doubts when I received the e-mail, so I decided to go to China according to the schedule," she told the paper. "But I knew the truth at the last moment that the e-mail had actually been sent by the CFA. So I think it would not make any difference if I went to China." Shang Ruihua, 64, will return to the post he last held in the early 1990s and oversee preparations for August's Beijing Olympics, the paper said.
■ BOLIVIA
Amateur club signs Morales
President Evo Morales has signed with a minor league soccer club in La Paz. The 47-year-old Morales is listed as a reserve player for Litoral, an amateur second-division squad organized by the Bolivian National Police, La Paz Soccer Association official Renato Arellano said on Wednesday. Litoral can earn promotion to Bolivia's top professional league if they manage to win a long series of qualifying tournaments this year. As a young man, Morales' soccer skills helped drive his rise to the presidency of Bolivia's largest coca-growers' union, a post that launched his political career. Since his 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president he has regularly played in practice matches with his palace staffers and retired Bolivian stars. Morales has been an outspoken critic of FIFA's ban on high-altitude games, which prevent Bolivia from playing internationals in La Paz.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
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Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
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