■SOCCER
FIFA rules on Scotland game
Scotland will have to play a potentially crucial World Cup qualifier against Norway before the start of the Scottish club season after losing a battle to have the match switched from August to October next year. The Scots agreed last year that they would play in Norway on Aug. 19, but that international date was moved to Aug. 12 at the request of UEFA to accommodate Champions League qualifiers. Scottish officials argued for the match to be switched to October instead, but FIFA has now ruled that the game should go ahead on Aug. 12. Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith said: “We’re disappointed with the decision, but at least now the date has been clarified, Scotland supporters can finally make their travel arrangements.”
■SOCCER
Darren Anderton retires
Former England international midfielder Darren Anderton announced his retirement on Thursday. The 36-year-old is currently at League Two side Bournemouth and will play his last game against Chester City today. Anderton also played for Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers and won 30 caps for England. His last appearance will be the 569th game of his club career. “It’s a tough decision and Saturday will be a sad day,” he told the Bournemouth Echo.”
■RUGBY UNION
Waratahs lose Wallabies
The New South Wales Waratahs have paid a high price for the Wallabies’ win over the Barbarians on Wednesday, losing front-rowers Matt Dunning and Sekope Kepu for possibly the whole of next year’s Super 14 rugby season. Dunning ruptured an Achilles tendon in the final match of Australia’s European tour and faces six months on the sidelines, while Kepu has torn a pectoral muscle and could have a similar period out of the game, reports said yesterday. Dunning and Kepu slipped when the soft Wembley surface gave way during the same second-half scrum. The Waratahs will also be without Wallaby forwards Dan Vickerman and Rocky Elsom next year as they have left for Europe.
■SOCCER
Kenyan player goes missing
Organizers of the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, are reportedly trying to find a Kenyan player who has been missing for a week. The man, in his 20s, has not joined his team since arriving in Melbourne on Nov. 28. Steve Persson, executive director of the event, which finishes tomorrow, said it was possible the man may seek asylum. “I guess we’d be naive not to think that it was a possibility,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. The man, whose name was not released, has an Australian visa that is valid for another two weeks.
■SOCCER
Cop injured by brawling fans
A police officer was injured as Paris Saint Germain supporters fought among themselves during the UEFA Cup match at Manchester City. After Wednesday’s 0-0 draw that ended PSG’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase, a visiting fan was arrested in downtown Manchester, but later released. Inside the ground, police in protective riot gear clashed with fans and seats were ripped up. “At halftime, a small number of French supporters fought among themselves in the stadium concourse,” police superintendent Steve Nibloe said on Thursday. “During this disturbance, an officer was struck on the back with a metal bin thrown by a supporter. He suffered a minor injury and received first aid at the stadium.”
■ BASEBALL
Bonds indictment revised
Federal prosecutors in San Francisco dropped four counts of lying to a grand jury against baseball star Barry Bonds, leaving him to face trial next year on 10 counts of making false statements plus an addition obstruction of justice charge. Bonds faces the same potential sentence range — probation to roughly two years in prison — if convicted. His trial is scheduled to begin on March 2. Thursday’s indictment, the third against the MLB home run king, came in response to US District Judge Susan Illston’s decision last week ordering prosecutors to again rewrite the technically faulty indictment. Bonds was originally charged last year with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. After a motion by his lawyers to dismiss the case, Illston ordered prosecutors to rewrite the indictment because multiple alleged lies were lumped into single charges. She agreed with Bonds’ attorney to dismiss two of the charges that were based on questions posed by prosecutors asking Bonds if he ever took steroids or received “flax seed oil stuff” because, she said, they were too vague to sustain a perjury charge. Illston also threw out another count based on Bonds’ repeated denials that he obtained human growth hormone from his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, because it too closely mirrored another charge, she said.
■BASKETBALL
Rogers reportedly paralyzed
Rodney Rogers, who starred in college and played in the NBA for 12 seasons, is paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of an all-terrain vehicle accident, the News & Observer of Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, reported on Thursday. Dave Odom, who coached Rogers for four years at Wake Forest University, told the newspaper that his former All-America forward is paralyzed from the shoulders down. The report said the 37-year-old Rogers, who was working in his hometown for the city public works department as a heavy machine operator, was riding in the woods last week in rural Vance County when he fell off his vehicle. Chosen by Denver in the first round of the 1993 NBA draft, the rugged, Rogers averaged 10.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 866 career games before retiring at the end of the 2004-2005 season.
■BIATHLON
Jonsson wins opener
Sweden’s Helena Jonsson won the opening event of the women’s World Cup biathlon calendar in Oestersund, Sweden, on Thursday ahead of Germany’s Kati Wilhelm and Russian Ekaterina Iourieva. Jonsson, a world champion in last year’s mixed relay event, produced a faultless shooting display on her way to winning the 15km race in 45 minutes, 5.1 seconds for her second victory on the world circuit.
■BASEBALL
Boston, Tazawa ink deal
Daisuke Matsuzaka helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in his first year and he won 18 games in his second. Now he’s pitching in with recruiting. The Red Sox signed their third pitcher from Japan on Thursday, adding right-handed amateur Junichi Tazawa to an organization that already included Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima. Tazawa said he spoke to his countrymen before signing the US$3.3 million, three-year deal and was impressed with the way the organization had helped them acclimate to the US. Tazawa, 22, played for four years for Nippon Oil of the Japan Industrial League. He was 13-1 with 5 saves and a 0.80 ERA this season in 21 games, 11 of them starts, striking out 114 batters and walking 15 over 113 innings and pitching four shutouts.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB