AUSTRALIA
David Beckham to visit
David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy are expected to bring a tourism boost to New South Wales after agreeing to a friendly against Australian side the Newcastle Jets next month. Former England captain Beckham and US international Landon Donovan will headline the one-off friendly match at the Newcastle International Sports Centre on Nov. 27, the third time the Galaxy have traveled to Australia in four years. “This is fantastic news for football fans and for tourism in the Hunter,” Jodi McKay, minister for the Hunter region in New South Wales, said on the team’s Web site. “The phenomenal global interest in David Beckham ... Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy team means Newcastle and the Jets will be in the spotlight for sports enthusiasts from around the world.”
JAPAN
Omiya Ardija head to quit
Omiya Ardija president Seigo Watanabe has said he will quit the Japanese club following an embarrassing scandal over fabricated attendance figures. The 55-year-old fell on his sword after the “Squirrels” were discovered to have inflated their J-League attendances by more than 110,000 over four years, Japanese media reported yesterday. “I’m angry,” J-League chairman Kazumi Ohigashi told the Nikkan Sports newspaper. “It damages the credibility of the whole J-League. I can’t believe they would do this.” Watanabe said the pressure of trying to meet the club’s target of 300,000 fans in a season by last year had led him to fabricate the numbers. “No one else was involved,” he said in a tearful news conference. “It was poor management, but I wasn’t aware of the J-League’s standards for defining attendance.” The J-League could further punish the club following a special disciplinary hearing and is expected to examine the records of all clubs.
SPAIN
Iker’s love reveals secret
The girlfriend of Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas, Sara Carbonero, revealed on Tuesday that she is a lifelong supporter of the Spanish giants’ cross-town rivals, Atletico Madrid. “I have been an Atletico supporter all my life. It is the team we watched at home since I was little although I also like the Spanish national team,” Carbonero, a sports journalist, told popular daytime chat show Ana Rosa on Telecinco, the private television station she works for. Carabonero, 25, shot to international fame during the World Cup when her reports on the Spain squad for Telecinco on live television from behind the net sparked accusations that she was distracting Casillas. The controversy abated with Spain’s first ever World Cup triumph. Casillas, 29, kissed Carbonero on the mouth when she interviewed him for Telecinco just minutes after the victory in a broadcast watched by millions in Spain.
FRANCE
Tigana mulls retirement
Bordeaux coach Jean Tigana revealed on Tuesday that his current employers would probably be his final club. “I think this could be my last club because I might take my footballing retirement early,” Tigana, 55, said in an interview with regional daily Sud-Ouest. “As things stand, I’ll go until the end of my contract [which runs until June 2012]. We’ll talk about it with [Bordeaux president] Jean-Louis [Triaud] at the end of the contract.” Tigana, a member of the heralded “Magic Square” midfield that was the heartbeat of France’s 1984 European Championship-winning side, has previously coached Lyon, Monaco, English side Fulham and Turkish outfit Besiktas.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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