■ENGLAND
Inter make Lampard bid
Italian champions Inter made a bid of £6.5 million (US$12.8 million) for Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, British daily the Sun reported. Lampard, 30, has one year of his current contract left and could buy himself out of the remainder, the newspaper said. Alternatively, he could wait until January and sign a pre-contract agreement with Inter that would allow him to leave on a free transfer at the end of next season, the daily added. Lampard has been pressing for a new contract at Stamford Bridge for months, though Chelsea has continuously refused to complete negotiations on a deal, the Sun said.
■SPAIN
Barca president survives poll
FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta survived a confidence vote held on Sunday that was brought against him by a supporter who was angered by the Spanish club’s second straight season without any major title, final results show. Less than half of all Barcelona supporters who cast ballots, 37.75 percent, voted to keep the 45-year-old at the helm of the club, while 60.6 percent voted against him staying on, the club said on its Web site. But to be successful, the vote against Laporta needed to have the support of over two-thirds of voters with a minimum turnout of 10 percent of the 118,528 club members entitled to take part. The result means Laporta and his team will be able to continue at the helm of the club until their current term expires on June 30, 2010.
■ITALY
Blues want Kaka: Galliani
Chelsea made an “astronomical” offer for Brazil playmaker Kaka, a top AC Milan official reportedly said on Sunday. Vice president Adriano Galliani was asked in an interview in La Stampa if it had been difficult to keep Kaka at the Serie A club, which is owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “For Kaka, we got an astronomical offer from Chelsea,” Galliani said. He did not say how much or when the offer was made. Chelsea did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Kaka signed with Milan in 2003, coming from Brazilian team Sao Paulo. He had knee surgery in Brazil in May and recently was quoted as saying he is on track to rejoin Milan to prepare for the upcoming season.
■SPAIN
Atletico sign Assuncao
Atletico Madrid announced on Sunday the signing of Brazilian midfielder Paulo Assuncao from Portuguese first division side Porto for an undisclosed fee. The 28-year-old joined his new teammates at Atletico yesterday, the Spanish club said in a statement posted on its Web site without specifying the length of his contract. Assuncao joined Porto in 2005 from AEK Athens, but has been eager to leave the Portuguese club after falling out with its management.
■ENGLAND
Crouch in Pompey move
Portsmouth agreed to pay Liverpool £11 million (US$21.8 million) for Peter Crouch and the England striker will sign a contract midweek, the Independent reported. The English Premier League clubs reached an agreement on Sunday, though Crouch, 27, can’t complete the move because some Liverpool officials do not return to work until this week, the newspaper said. Crouch also attracted similar-sized bids from Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United, the Independent said. He opted for Portsmouth so he could link up again with Harry Redknapp, whom he played for more than six years ago during Redknapp’s first spell at Pompey, the paper said.
AGENCIES
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