■FORMULA ONE
Glock talks about threats
Timo Glock was a victim of personal threats after Lewis Hamilton passed him in the closing stages of last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix to secure the drivers’ title, the German said on Tuesday. Briton Hamilton overtook Glock, who had stayed on dry-weather tires, a few hundred meters from the finish to grab fifth place in the race. “This was not a pretty way to end the season,” Glock told the Darmstaedter Echo newspaper as he prepared for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. “The reactions from many German fans were very bad. It seems there are many racist people who did not like seeing Hamilton become world champion. The reactions ranged from ‘we know where your parents live’ to ‘you belong in the gas chamber,’” the Toyota driver said. McLaren driver Hamilton, the sport’s first black champion, has occasionally been the target of racial abuse and last November his father Anthony said the taunting had made him doubt whether his son should be competing in Formula One. “I did think maybe this is not the place for my family,” Hamilton senior told the Daily Express newspaper.
■SOCCER
Unemployed to get in free
Villarreal will offer unemployed season ticket holders free passes for next season to help fans feeling the effects of the global economic crisis, club president Fernando Roig said on Tuesday. “Season ticket holders who are on the dole will be allowed in free next year,” Roig told a news conference. “The idea is to think of the club’s wider social base and those who have been unlucky to lose their jobs so they can continue to watch football in the Madrigal.” Roig said the club’s board, coaching staff, players and sponsors would combine to set up a fund to help subsidize the plan, with the precise details agreed in the next few weeks. Striker Joseba Llorente gave his backing to the scheme. “We are keen to get involved because it seems like a good idea considering the times we are in,” Llorente said. “There are many people without work and it’s a shame if they don’t come to the stadium because of this.”
■SOCCER
Player sentenced to death
A court in the United Arab Emirates has condemned to death a top national soccer player and two other men for stabbing a man to death in a street fight, local media reported yesterday. Fayez Jomma, who played for the national soccer team, his brother Mousa and another soccer player Mohammad Najeeb, were found guilty of killing the victim known only as J.J. with a sword and a knife in May, the 7Days newspaper reported. Although the UAE has the death penalty, which is imposed for crimes including murder and drug trafficking, executions are very rare. Abdul Hamid al-Kumaity, the lawyer representing the victim’s family, told the Gulf News his clients were seeking 1 million dirhams (US$272,000) “in compensation for emotional, psychological and financial damages.”
■SOCCER
Torino fire Novellino again
Torino fired coach Walter Novellino on Tuesday for the second time in a year and hired Giancarlo Camolese to lead the club out of the relegation zone. After losing 3-1 at home to Sampdoria on Sunday, Torino are tied for next to last in Serie A with Lecce, with nine games remaining. Torino president Urbano Cairo confirmed the move, Apcom news agency reported. Novellino was also fired with five rounds remaining last season, when Giovanni De Biasi was brought in and saved the club from relegation.
RSS