■SPAIN
Former coach to the rescue
A group headed by former coach Llorenc Serra Ferrer has decided to buy the majority shareholding in Real Mallorca, the cash-strapped club said yesterday. Mallorca are in the process of going into voluntary administration in a bid to sort out their finances, lumbered by debts of up to 85 million euros (US$104 million). “We are taking up this option to buy,” Serra Ferrer was quoted as saying on the club Web site. “The first thing to do is to thank the people who have thought similarly about trying to make Mallorca viable in sporting, economic and social terms.” Serra Ferrer’s group will take over the shareholding of Mateu Alemany, who has been trying to find investors since former president Vicenc Grande’s real estate company filed for insolvency in 2008. Spanish daily El Mundo quoted sources, who said the group had paid around two million euros. Against an unstable background including delayed payments to players, Mallorca were one of La Liga’s surprise packages last season. They only missed out on a place in the Champions League qualifying round on the final day of the campaign, ending fifth in the standings. Serra Ferrer, 57, was born in Mallorca and spent the first ten years of his coaching career with the club before spells with Barcelona, AEK Athens and Real Betis.
■SPAIN
Henry, Toure to leave Barca
Barcelona have agreed to sell France striker Thierry Henry and Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure, the club said on Monday. Henry, who returned from the World Cup last week after France’s surprise early exit, agreed a move before heading out to South Africa following a season when he has spent most of the time on the bench. “Now it is up to him to complete it,” Barca director Joan Oliver said on the club Web site after the last board meeting under outgoing president Joan Laporta. “This will allow Barca to save money on his wages in the next financial year.” Henry, 32, was reputedly one of the highest paid players in Pep Guardiola’s squad and had one year left on his contract. He has been linked with a move to the New York Red Bulls in the US. Barcelona have also been negotiating with Manchester City over the future of Toure who, like Henry, had requested a transfer. Toure, 27, has been seeking a move to gain more regular first-team action.
■SPAIN
Real sign Angel di Maria
Real Madrid have signed Argentina midfielder Angel di Maria from Benfica, the club said on their Web site on Monday. The 22-year-old, who has helped Argentina reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup in South Africa, is the first signing the club have made since Jose Mourinho replaced Manuel Pellegrini as coach last month. The club did not release any figures but Spanish media reported the deal was worth around 25 million euros (US$30.85 million). Di Maria helped Argentina’s under-20s win the 2007 World Youth Cup in Canada and also a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
■ENGLAND
Boselli joins Latics
Argentine striker Mauro Boselli has signed a four-year contract with Wigan for an undisclosed fee. Boselli will transfer from Estudiantes, who he helped win the Copa Libertadores and reach the Club World Cup final last year. He scored tallied 32 goals in 57 appearances for the club. “At 25 years old he is at a perfect moment in his career to come and play in the Premier League, and he has all the right qualities to make his mark at this level,” Wigan manager Roberto Martinez said on the club Web site yesterday.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier