■ARGENTINA
Buonanotte hurt in car crash
River Plate’s sought-after forward Diego Buonanotte broke his collar bone and damaged a lung in a car crash in which three friends were killed in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The 21-year-old Buonanotte, a member of Argentina’s Olympic gold medal squad last year, and his friends were returning in pouring rain from a night out dancing near his home town of Teodolina when their car hit a tree. The diminutive attacking midfielder was spending the end of year holidays in Teodolina, Santa Fe Province, and was due to return to his club in Buenos Aires for pre-championship training on Friday. European and Mexican clubs have shown interest in Buonanotte, but the new River Plate chairman, former captain and coach Daniel Passarella, who was elected earlier this month, has urged him to stay to help the team out of one of their worst-ever slumps.
■ENGLAND
Replace throw-ins: Wenger
Soccer could be speeded up by replacing throw-ins with kick-ins, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Saturday. The Frenchman believes some clubs gain an unfair advantage simply because they have a player who can propel the ball long distances from throw-ins. “For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball,” the Gunners manager told the club’s official Web site. “It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot. Why not? I think it would make the game quicker.”
■PORTUGAL
Former Red joins Sporting
Former Liverpool striker Florent Sinama-Pongolle has agreed to move from struggling Spanish side Atletico Madrid to Sporting, the Portuguese team announced on Saturday. “An agreement in principle has been reached with Atletico Madrid and Florent Sinama-Pongolle in view to a transfer on Jan. 1,” a Sporting statement said. The Diario de Noticias newspaper reported that French international Sinama-Pongolle would cost Sporting, who are fifth in the table and 12 points behind leaders Sporting Braga and Benfica, about 6 million euros (US$8.6 million). Sinama-Pongolle, 25, started his career at Le Havre before spending three years at Liverpool between 2003 and 2006. After two years at Recreativo in Spain, he moved to Atletico Madrid last year, but struggled to hold down a first-team place in the face of competition from Uruguay striker Diego Forlan and Argentina striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero.
■AUSTRALIA
Culina to miss Kuwait trip
Midfielder Jason Culina has been ruled out of Australia’s Asian Cup qualifying clash with Kuwait on Jan. 6 because of a knee injury. Culina sustained the injury during Gold Coast United’s 5-1 win over Brisbane Roar in the Australian A-League on Saturday. Medics say the injury is not severe, with the former PSV Eindhoven player expected to be out of action for only two weeks. Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has called up Central Coast Mariners player Dean Heffernan as Culina’s replacement for the trip to Kuwait City. Kuwait and Australia are joint leaders of Group B, with both sides needing one more victory to book their place in next year’s tournament, which is being held in Qatar.
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