■ BRAZIL
Ronaldo just needs club
Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo, who has been out of action since February with a knee injury, hopes to play again in January — if he can find a club, his doctor said. The 32-year-old’s physiotherapist Bruno Mazzioti told Radio Brasil that the player hopes to train next week with Flamengo. “He’ll train with Flamengo. Then his idea is to return to action in January 2009 although it remains to see which club he will play for,” Mazzioti said. Ronaldo, who suffered a serious left knee injury in February, has been without a club since the end of last season when his contract with AC Milan came to an end. He has been linked with a move to fellow Serie A side Siena, who offered him a deal in which he would be paid 98,000 euros (US$126,200) for every goal scored. The former world player of the year recently took part in a charity match, but only lasted 22 minutes before being substituted, blaming it on the exhaustive regime he was following to return to action.
■ ENGLAND
Torres injured again
Liverpool’s Premier League title push suffered a setback on Thursday when their Spanish international striker Fernando Torres was ruled out for up to three weeks with a hamstring strain. Torres, who had only just returned to the side after five weeks out with a similar problem, picked up the injury in the 1-0 Champions League win over Marseille at Anfield on Wednesday. Defender Fabio Aurelio will be out for a fortnight after picking up a calf problem in the same game. A club spokesman told www.
liverpoolfc.tv: “Fernando has a strain in his right hamstring and will be out of action for between two and three weeks. Fabio has a calf strain in his left leg and will be out for two weeks.”
■ SPAIN
Real sees record revenues
Real Madrid on Thursday posted a pre-tax net profit for the 2007-2008 season of 51.4 million euros (US$66.7 million) and predicted its revenues will total more than 400 million euros next season for the first time in its history. The club’s pre-tax net profit in the 12 months to June 30 was 7.4 million euros higher than that posted during the same time last year. Revenues in 2007/2008 totaled 366 million euros and are expected to climb to 400.2 million euros in the 12-month period to June 30 next year, vice-president Jose Ignacio Rivero told reporters. Real Madrid were the world’s largest revenue-generating club for the third successive season in the 2006-2007 season, according to an annual ranking compiled by business advisory firm Deloitte. The reigning Spanish champions overtook Manchester United as the biggest soccer club by revenue in the 2004-2005 season after a policy of signing big names like David Beckham, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane led to a surge in sales of replica shirts and other items.
■ UEFA CUP
Police spray fighting fans
Belgian police used water cannon to break up running brawls between fans of Bruges and French side St Etienne before kick-off in the UEFA Cup tie between the two sides in Bruges, Belgium, on Thursday. A police spokesman said numerous fights had broken out outside the stadium. “These scuffles were so serious that there were some injuries suffered by supporters. Two policemen were also hurt and were taken to hospital,” he said. Another police source said around two dozen fans had been arrested.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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