■ENGLAND
Ancelotti defends Terry
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti insists John Terry has nothing to hide after a newpaper report on Sunday accused the England captain of accepting a financial payment to provide a tour of the club’s training ground. The News of the World said that Terry, who captained the Blues in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham, arranged the visit to Chelsea’s Cobham headquarters for three undercover reporters posing as businessmen without permission from Ancelotti. Terry allegedly took a £10,000 (US$16,100) payment, £8,000 of which he wanted to go to the Make A Wish charity for children with the other £2,000 going to a middleman. The paper has secretly recorded video footage of the negotiations, but Ancelotti gave the defender his full support after the draw at Upton Park. “This is not true. I think the club, me and players have a lot of confidence in John Terry and he did nothing wrong,” Ancelotti said. “It is not necessary that I watch a video. I have a lot of confidence in my captain.”
■SCOTLAND
Hearts stall Celtic’s title bid
Hearts came from behind to beat Celtic 2-1 in the Scottish Premier League at Tynecastle on Sunday, a defeat that left the Hoops four points behind leaders Rangers. Celtic went ahead through Georgios Samaras in the 21st minute, but Michael Stewart’s penalty drew the hosts level before half-time after Gary Caldwell had been sent-off for pulling down Jamie Mole in the incident that led to the spot-kick. Although 10-man Celtic played well after the break, Ismael Bouzid’s header 24 minutes from time sealed what was only Hearts’ fourth league win of the season.
■GERMANY
Hamburg down Bremen
Ten-man Hamburg beat Werder Bremen 2-1 in a north Germany derby on Sunday to go fourth in the Bundesliga and put themselves back in the title race behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen. First-half goals from Dutch defender Joris Mathijsen and Germany defender Marcell Jansen came either side of the dismissal of Hamburg’s Jerome Boateng who was shown a straight red card for bringing down Bremen’s Marko Marin. Cologne pulled away from the bottom three with a 3-0 win against Nuremberg in heavy snow, which left them 12th in the table while their visitors are now second from bottom, four points away from 16th-placed VfL Bochum.
■FRANCE
Lyon falter at Monaco
Misfiring Lyon extended their run of indifferent form with a 1-1 draw at Monaco on Sunday that leaves them in fourth place in the French top flight, 10 points behind league leaders Bordeaux. The dominant force of the past decade, Lyon have now won just once in their last seven league matches and their title challenge appears to be fading by the week. Michel Bastos fired Lyon into a 22nd-minute lead with a sublime 30-yard free-kick that zipped into the bottom-left corner, but Monaco drew level 11 minutes before half-time following an error from Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. Earlier, Lille’s phenomenal run of form continued as they beat third-bottom Le Mans 3-0 to secure their fifth straight win. In the day’s other match, Auxerre rescued a 1-1 draw at home to Toulouse thanks to a last-minute equalizer from Roy Contout. Defending champions Bordeaux pulled clear at the top of the division after cruising to a 4-1 victory at home to Lorient on Saturday, with striker David Bellion twice on target and Yoann Gourcuff in typically influential mood.
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